to Glosters for a complete overhaul. 24 Feb 44 - To Rolls-Royces' aerodrome at Balderton following completion of overhaul. 25-minute flight. To quote from the flight report held by DoRIS; 'due to the landing of an entire American Transport Squadron, the aircraft was flown around Balderton for a few minutes while waiting for the aerodrome to clear'. 28 Apr 44 Following tests, transferred to Church Broughton for further development flying. Whittle is believed to have based himself at Balderton Old Hall on Main Street while working on his prototype jet engine trials at RAF Balderton. Return to British control RAF Balderton was returned to No. 5 Group RAF Bomber Command, at the end of September 1944 and the re-formed No. 227 Squadron RAF with Avro Lancaster's. 227's Squadron identification code was 9J. 227 Squadron was based at RAF Balderton between October 1944 and April 1945. The first mission they took part in while at RAF Balderton was on the night of 28 October 1944. 18 aircraft to bomb Bergen, Norway. 227 Squadron moved to RAF Strubby, Lincolnshire on 5 April 1945. Postwar Use Having no operational usefulness to the RAF, from June 1945, bombs were stored on the runways. Like many wartime airfields, it languished unused with a little demolition until gradually disposed of in the 1950s and 1960s. A notice in The Times for 20 May 1957 listed the airfield as one of those no longer needed by the RAF. The airfield was sold by public auction on Wednesday, 9 September 1959. RAF Balderton was then sold by the MOD and returned to agriculture, the runway concrete disappearing as hardcore under the A1 improvements of the mid-1960s. At that time, the developed A1 was routed west of the original road (The Old Great North Road), over the eastern perimeter track of the airfield, before coming back to the east to bypass Balderton village and Newark. Gypsum open-pit mining has also taken its toll where quarrying has obliterated the western side of the airfield. See also List of former Royal Air Force stations 82nd Airborne Division References Citations Bibliography Freeman, Roger A. (1994) UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now 1994. After the Battle Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . British Automobile Association (AA), (1978), Complete Atlas of Britain, Men of Power: The Lives of