Halifax bomber memorial would mark fatal crash

Proposals have been submitted for a Halifax bomber memorial in North Lincolnshire.

Planning permission is being sought to put up a small sculpture of the World War Two plane in Kirton in Lindsey.

The location of the memorial, which is supported by the town council, would be on unused open space.

It would commemorate a fatal crash in the town in 1944, which involved a Halifax, as well as the area's wartime links.

According to planning documents, the memorial would provide visitors with an "opportunity for reflection".

It would be built from brick, with a small sculpture of a Halifax bomber mounted on top.

There would be a narrow flower bed around the memorial.

According to the RAF Museum, the Halifax and Lancaster planes shared a large part of the burden of Bomber Command’s night bombing campaign against Nazi Germany.

The Halifax was also used extensively on other duties, including as a general reconnaissance aircraft in Coastal Command.

Between 1941 and 1945, the Halifax made more than 75,000 bombing sorties and was responsible for more than a quarter of all bombs dropped on Germany by the Royal Air Force.

RAF Kirton in Lindsey was a Fighter Command station during the Battle of Britain. After the war, it served for many years as a training and Army facility, before being put up for sale in 2013.

The applicant for the memorial, Tony Bartlett, previously designed a sculpture in Kirton of a farmer with an old potato plough. A plaque refers to the town’s ancient name, Chirchetone.

Kirton also has one of England’s smallest listed buildings, a whipping post dating from the 18th Century.

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