Page 7 - Dennis Ovenden

RAF Lindholme, being Base Station controlling servicing and administration to three Heavy
Conversion Unit’s airfields plus a Lancaster Finishing School. No.1656 Heavy Conversion Unit
(1656 HCU), was the resident Conversion Unit at Lindholme, the station being part of No. 1
Groups four training airfields in 1944.

The sub stations controlled by Lindholme were,
RAF Sandtoft, (1667 HCU) near Scunthorpe, ʻPrangtoftʼ as it was known to all by its accident rate.
RAF Blyton (1662 HCU) known as ʻBloody awful Blytonʼ due to the mud that covered the airfields
accommodation sites, with No. 1 Lancaster Finishing School (1LFS) at RAF Hemswell,
north of Lincoln.
Hemswell was a prewar station and thus had luxury brick-built accommodation, against the basic
Nissan huts at training and operational squadron. These airfields were equipped with both the
Handley Page Halifax and in a smaller quantity, the Avro Lancaster whilst 1 LFS was solely
equipped with the Avro Lancaster.

Dennis and his crew, having been allocated training positions were posted from Lindholme to RAF
Sandtoft, converting to the Handley Page Halifax, their first exercise on the 1 October
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(take off time is not entered in the flight log). Exercises at Sandtoft include fighter affiliation. This
entailed a Hurricane or Spitfire from No.1481 Fighter Affiliation Flight based at RAF Ingham,
1 mile north of RAF Scampton engaging the crew’s Halifax and the gunners given advice by a tour
expired gunner on how to engage enemy aircraft. The crew’s gunners would also have been
detached to RAF Ingham for further air to air gunnery practice, they shooting wooden ·303 calibre
bullets at a drogue target towed by No. 1481’s Miles Martinet aircraft. Details of one of the
squadrons rear gunner training at RAF Ingham is here:

Warrant Officer Peter Brown

The crew also undertook bombing exercises at Donna Nook bombing range on the Lincolnshire
coast south of Grimsby, using concrete filled practice bombs and target indicator night training at
the Misson range, to the south east of Bawtry, this range on the Thorne peat wastes. The crew
also undertook two ʻBullseyeʼ exercises over local targets, most probably practicing bombing
procedures over Doncaster.
The webmaster’s late uncle, a Wireless operator with 576 Squadron at the same times as Dennis
recalls this type of exercise over Doncaster, he completing both day and night
exercises whilst under training at Sandtoft a month after Dennis.

The crew completed at Sandtoft, 19 hours day and 23 hours 40 minutes night flying. After 21 day
and night exercises, the crew were posted onto RAF Hemswell on the 4 November to complete
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their conversion to the Avro Lancaster. The crew’s first flight in the Avro Lancaster was at 10-
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00am on the 5 November, the crew completing 8 further flights until declared
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fit for operational duties on the 9 November.The crew then posted onto No.576 (Bomber)
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Squadron at RAF Fiskerton, Lincoln on the 10 November to commence Main Force operations
with the squadron.

Dennis and his crew were now part of No. 1 Group, the Headquarters of this Group at Bawtry Hall,
Bawtry in South Yorkshire. This Group was responsible for 14 operational Main Force heavy
bomber squadrons on 12 airfields north of Lincoln up to the Humber Estuary. The Group had 333
operational Avro Lancasters at its disposal with some 14 Lancasters as spares (one spare per
squadron). This ensured any Lancaster with a technical problem prior to take off could be
exchanged for the Squadron fully bombed up and fueled spare.
By the start of 1945, Bomber Command had grown to a total of 8 operational Groups with a
front-line establishment of 108 squadrons equipped with 1,696 heavy bombers, in total some
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2,254 aircraft of various types on the Commands Order of Battle, as of 22 March 1945.