Wildlife Trust appeal to buy Dambuster airfield

A Land Fit for Heroes - appeal to buy Woodhall Spa Airfield

July 2013. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust has launched an appeal to raise half a million pounds to buy Woodhall Spa Airfield. If successful, for the first time ever, the public will be able to walk along the runway that the Lancasters took off from.

The charity currently owns more than half of the airfield and an adjacent nature reserve, Kirkby Moor. By securing the rest of the site, the runway can be saved and a new nature reserve created. Kirby Moor has a wide range of plants and animals: 250 plant species have so far been recorded, together with 275 moths, 20 butterflies and 11 dragonflies. About 60 species of birds breed on the reserve in most years and over 100 species have so far been recorded. Adders occur on the reserve. 

Woodhall Spa Airfield will become a place where visitors can share in the unique atmosphere of spaciousness and serenity. The air will fill with the songs of skylarks. The open skies will see birds of prey soaring where aircraft once flew. It will be a fitting tribute to the many servicemen and women who gave their lives to preserve and protect our ‘green and pleasant land'.

Donate here. 

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/dambuster-woodhall.html

Guy Gibson: ghost of Dambusters dog 'found' at airbase

A team of paranormal investigators have claimed they have made contact with the "spirit" of the dog owned by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the heroic pilot who led the Dambusters raids during the Second World War.
Wing Commander Gibson led the Dambusters raid in 1943 from his base at RAF Scampton, near Lincoln, just hours after his black labrador, called Nigger, was run over and killed.

Before taking off for the Ruhr Dams, Wing Commander Gibson left instructions for his faithful companion to be buried outside his office.

But a legend sprung up around Nigger after there were several reported sightings of a black dog seen around the base following his death.

His office has been empty for more than half a century and is now part of the RAF Scampton Historical Museum, near Lincoln, Lincs.

Now paranormal investigators, given special permission to stake out the operational RAF base, have claimed that the spectre of the dog's spirit may have tried to speak to them as they have picked up activity on their electronic detection equipment.

Filmed by the BBC, the team embarked on three all-night stakeouts at the base, now home to the Red Arrows.

It came Paul Drake, the lead investigator, was inspired by a 1987 photograph showing a mystery black dog at the opening of a Damsbusters memorial in the nearby village of Woodhall Spa.

"I saw a picture that had the dog in it, which the photographer said was not there when it was taken, and that has stayed in the back of my mind for a few years," said Mr Drake, 49, a computer engineer and founder of Paranormal Lincs.

"After I saw the picture I got in contact with RAF Scampton to see if we could do an investigation. I never dreamed they would say 'yes' as it is still an operational base and everything has to go through the base commander.

"But they have been absolutely brilliant and have welcomed us with open arms."

The name of Gibson's black labrador was used as a code word whenever one of Germany's Ruhr Dams was breached during the "bouncing bomb" mission in May 1943, and was immortalised in the 1955 film starring Richard Todd.

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