Page 20 - Oundle Life August 2024

of Deenethorpe village. Two crew members the 8th Air Force.
were trapped in the wreckage but, after pulling After the war the airfield was used as an RAF
them free, the uninjured crew rushed to warn villagers to evacuate before the B-17’s bombload exploded. When it did, the blast was so great it was heard nine miles away in Kettering. It also damaged many houses in Deenethorpe, but the actions of the heroic air crew undoubtedly saved the lives of many villagers.
small private aircraft can still land and take off on the one remaining runway
Recruiting Centre before being sold off in 1963. Today, it’s privately owned and, while much of the land has returned to agricultural use (the Nissen huts where the aircrew were domiciled are now used as lambing sheds), microlights and small private aircraft can still land and take off on the one remaining concrete runway, which is a massive 3,937 feet long.
Some 254 combat missions were
flown out of Deenethorpe between
1943 and 1945 and the Group had the best bombing accuracy record among all Groups in
In 2011 the widow of Tom Parker, the final member of the crew of Lucky Lady to pass away in old age, made a special trip to
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