RAF Winthorpe 14/11/1940

[noggin]

Has anybody any info on the attack on RAF Winthorpe on 14th November 1940 by a lone aircraft dropping a parachute mine. The aircraft first dropped a red flare to light up the area before dropping the mine. The mine was seen coming down by some of the ground personnel. Thinking it was a parachutist they began firing. When they realised that it wasn't they ran for their lives. It landed on the south side of the airfield leaving a large hole some 38ft across with fortunately no loss of life or aircraft.

[Chris Goss]

Without a time, this is hard as that night 14-15 Nov 40 (presumably), there was quite a bit going on, especially in the Coventry area

[noggin]

Yes I understand thanks. I've seen a few reports on local history sites and the RAF Winthorpe and Newark Air Museum sites and they all seem to be copies of each other just saying the " night of ". Being November it was obviously dark early and whether the airfield was the intended target or not has always been disputed. Although I did see on another post on here KG2 or KG3 had targeted a fuel depot at Winthorpe earlier but failed to find the target. Thanks for the reply Chris. Local archive report : On the night of the 14th of November 1940 farmer Charles Wright was talking to the local policeman, outside his home Two Mile House Farm (now the site of Winthorpe roundabout on the A46) when an aeroplane was heard circling overhead. They thought he was going to land onto the grass runway. (Later it became a concrete runway.) Suddenly a bright light, the aeroplane having dropped a flare, lighted up the sky. A mighty explosion blowing them off their feet into a nearby hedge shortly followed this. After picking themselves up with no injuries they realised that the aeroplane was an enemy bomber and had dropped a bomb onto the airfield. (This was a parachute mine.) Bits of aluminium casings were found around the whole area. This occurred on the south side of the airfield on what is now the A17 road near to where Master Care Warehouse now stands.