2020

TL2755 : RAF Gransden Lodge memorial

taken 4 years ago, near to Little Gransden, Cambridgeshire, England

RAF Gransden Lodge memorial
RAF Gransden Lodge memorial
Beside the road adjacent to the mill is this memorial to those who served and flew from Gransden Lodge airfield in WW2.
Named on the memorial are 405 (Vancouver) Squadron RCAF, The Pathfinder Force of no. 8 (PFF) Group, who marked targets for Bomber Command 1942 - 1945.

Gransden Lodge opened in April 1942 as an operational RAF Bomber Command station with three concrete runways. At the end of 1945 the airfield was transferred to Transport Command but the last operational squadron was disbanded in February 1946. The RAF station closed in 1955 and it was also used for some motor races, including the first major postwar motor race in the UK on 15 June 1946.
WW2 Airfield and Squadron memorials

Royal Air Force and USAAF Station memorials, where they exist, have been erected on, or close to the airfield, primarily to honour those who served and to perpetuate the memory of those who lost their life during the Second World War.
They differ in size, from large, striking memorials, sometimes with flagpoles completing the setting, often with depictions of aircraft, squadron badges and the basic layout of the airfield itself etched into the memorial, to minimalist, and even almost commercial, but nevertheless equally sincere in their remembrance and gratitude to those who served and to the sacrifices made in times of war.
In many instances, much of the Air Station will have been demolished in the intervening years, and returned to agriculture, or converted into an industrial or housing estate, eventually to fade from the landscape altogether, but hopefully will remain a little longer in the memory of those who encounter the memorials along the roads and pathways.
Most were operational from 1939, until just after end of the War in 1945. The bases were home to brave young men and women who served the allied forces flying fighters and bombers from the runways of the airfield, sometimes never to return.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Adrian S Pye and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Derelict, Disused Defence, Military other tags: RAF Gransden Lodge RAF Gransden Lodge Memorial Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
This photo is linked from: Articles: · Airfields and their Memorials in East Anglia Automatic Clusters: · RAF Station [2] ·
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TL2755, 84 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Adrian S Pye   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Saturday, 21 March, 2020   (more nearby)
Submitted
Sunday, 22 March, 2020
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! TL 2771 5551 [10m precision]
WGS84: 52:10.9838N 0:8.0082W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! TL 2771 5550
View Direction
EAST (about 90 degrees)
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Image Type (about): close look 
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