When
Britain faced the threat of a Soviet nuclear attack, a quiet village near Grimsby stood in the way. Today, little remains of what was once one of the country’s most important RAF bases. A hangar has been converted into a farmer's grain store, while other former
MILITARY buildings are home to a peaceful Christian training college. But as dawn broke over RAF North Coates on a late October’s Saturday in 1962, the staff there could have been forgiven for wondering if it was their last. Here on the very edge of the Lincolnshire coast, rows of sinister-looking missiles pointed up at the sky and an unseen enemy. Their
Job – to seek and destroy enemy bombers that might appear at any moment. READ MORE: The Grimsby X-Files - from strange
UFO sightings to an 'alien abduction' People and places around the Grimsby area 45 years ago in 1979 Less than an hour’s drive inland, the pilots of the nuclear V-bomber force waited on full alert, ready to leave the ground within just 15 minutes and make for targets behind the Iron Curtain. Britain was on the brink of war and the village of North Cotes was on the front line. Amid continuing tensions with Putin's
Russia following the country's invasion of
Ukraine, the threat – however slim – of a nuclear standoff has occasionally been in the news again over the past few years. But during the Cold War, the menace of
Russian bombers was very real and anybody who thought rural Lincolnshire would not be a prime target would have been sadly mistaken. Bloodhound missiles at RAF North Coates in November 1958. RAF bomber bases around the county could have come under attack, along with a naval communications centre at New Waltham. North of the Humber, the city of Hull would potentially have been targeted, as well as a radar station at Patrington. To counter the threat, during the 1950s, Britain developed a fleet of supersonic fighter planes alongside, for the first time, surface-to-air guided missiles designed to seek and destroy enemy aircraft. In 1958, North Cotes village was at the centre of a media blitz when it was chosen as the country’s first
missile base, “home to the Royal Air Force of the future”, with the most advanced weapons of their kind anywhere in the world. The aptly named Bloodhound Missiles, with their ram-jet engines and sleek snouts pointing towards the sky, looked futuristic enough when they were installed at RAF North Coates in 1958. It was sold to the public as a complete weapons system that would protect the country against the most determined of enemies. Had they been fired in anger, Britain would have almost certainly been at war and on the brink of a nuclear exchange. The first concern was to protect the V Bomber force, based at Coningsby, Scampton and Waddington, which carried Britain's nuclear deterrent, but boffins hoped eventually to design a weapon accurate enough to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles. George Ward, the Air Minister of the day, said: "Ultimately it is to the development of the surface-to-air guided weapons system that we look for anti-ballistic missile defence. With the introduction of new equipment and better techniques we can expect Fighter Command to meet a bomber attack at a greater distance from our shores, and with a greater proportion of our fighter force, both by day and night". RAF North Coates, on the very edge of the Lincolnshire coast, had a long and proud history as a base during two world wars. An attack squadron of fighter-bombers flew from here during the Second World War to menace German shipping in the North Sea. In 1953, it was inundated by the great North Sea flood. Nevertheless, five years later it was chosen as the first base for Britain’s newest weapon. RAF North Coates near Grimsby and how the base was laid out (Image:
Google Maps) In November 1958, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the base to inspect No. 264 Air Defence Missile Squadron. He was pictured examining one of the missiles, described at the time as the most advanced in the world. One correspondent, writing in the Birmingham Mail, described watching a trial of the missiles, which flew at twice the speed of sound. “As I watched one of the missiles being quickly placed in position on its metal launching frame. an aircraft made a dummy attack on the airfield. Long before I could see or hear it. a missile was turning swiftly towards the direction from which It was corning. Evasive tactics were of no use. Each time the aircraft made an alteration of course the nose of the missile turned. “Had this been a real operation, the aircraft would not have stood the slightest chance of coming anywhere near the station. A complex but swift acting system of radar detection and guidance briefs the missile in a matter of seconds.” Despite the claims, the advanced technology was not without its problems. According to the website Bomber County Aviation Resource, radar operators were flummoxed when their screens began picking up moving objects in the Immingham area. Fortunately, the culprits turned out not to be Russian planes, but moving cranes on the docks. The base was, of course, given top-level security, with night patrols by RAF
police dogs and their handlers. It was expected to be ready to
fire its missiles on demand. Group Captain James Leathart, the ex-Battle of Britain pilot commanding the station, told journalists: "If the political temperature goes up we can go into operational posture at any time." A Bloodhound missile returned to its former home at RAF North Coates in 2013. (Image: Abby Ruston / Grimsby Telegraph) That day almost came in October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The
United States had discovered a Russian plan to install nuclear missiles in Cuba and President John F Kennedy was under intense pressure to
bomb or invade the island. With Britain ready to stand by its ally, Vulcan bombers were placed on a 15-minute standby. Fortunately, diplomacy won the day and Britain’s missile bases were never called upon to defend the country during a nuclear war, despite several other close calls over the next three decades. By the late 1980s, with the Cold War winding down, the Bloodhounds were a relic of another age. The base finally closed in 1990 and its staff quarters were transferred to other uses, including a private housing estate. Today, the missiles are long gone but a grass airstrip, operated by the North Coates Flying Club, serves as a reminder that this quiet village was, for much of the 20th century, at the forefront of Britain’s air defences. Join the FREE Grimsby Live
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