1. Introduction

RAF Waddington's squadrons have defined its character more than any other single thing. The station has been home to bomber crews flying Hampdens, Manchesters and Lancasters, to V-force crews holding the nuclear deterrent at readiness in Vulcans, and to the specialist intelligence units that fly Rivet Joints and Shadows today. In each era, Waddington's squadrons were among the first to receive new aircraft — a pattern that began before the war and has never really stopped.

No single squadron belongs to Waddington for its whole existence. Instead, the station's identity comes from the sequence of units that have called it home, each leaving its own mark on the airfield's buildings, its records, and its memorials.

2. Pre-war and wartime squadrons

Waddington reopened as a bomber station on 12 March 1937 with the arrival of No. 50 Squadron, equipped with Hawker Hinds before converting to the Handley Page Hampden. No. 44 Squadron moved in from RAF Andover in June 1937, and No. 110 Squadron was also present for a time before departing for RAF Wattisham in May 1939.

When war broke out in September 1939, Nos. 44 and 50 Squadrons flew the Hampden from Waddington, and both were in action against German naval targets at Kiel on the day war was declared. The squadrons took part in the channel ports campaign of 1940, attacking the invasion barges assembling along the French coast.

Waddington was at the leading edge of Bomber Command's re-equipment. In November 1940 it became the first station to receive the Avro Manchester, and in September 1941 the first Lancaster prototype, BT308, arrived for flight testing. On 2 March 1942, No. 44 Squadron became the first in Bomber Command to fly the Lancaster operationally — a distinction that belongs to Waddington as much as to the squadron. On 17 April 1942, seven Lancasters of No. 44 Squadron took off from Waddington for Operation Margin, the low-level daylight raid on the MAN diesel engine works at Augsburg, one of the most hazardous operations of the early bomber war. No. 44 left Waddington for RAF Dunholme Lodge in May 1943.

Other wartime squadrons at Waddington included No. 97 Squadron, which reformed there in February 1941 with the Manchester before moving to RAF Coningsby; No. 207 Squadron, which reformed in November 1940 and also flew the Manchester; No. 9 Squadron, which arrived in August 1942 flying the Wellington III before converting to Lancasters; No. 142 Squadron, briefly present with Fairey Battles in 1940; No. 420 Squadron RCAF, formed there in December 1941 with Hampdens; and the Australian units No. 463 and No. 467 Squadrons RAAF, which flew Lancasters from Waddington from late 1943. No. 617 Squadron was based at Waddington from June 1945 to January 1946, flying Lancaster VII-FEs before departing for Pakistan.

3. Post-war heavies: Lancasters and Lincolns

With peace, Waddington's bomber squadrons re-equipped and reorganised. No. 61 Squadron arrived in January 1946 with Lancaster I and IIIs before converting to the Avro Lincoln, remaining until August 1953. No. 50 Squadron was based at Waddington from January 1946 with Lincolns, disbanding in January 1951. No. 57 Squadron flew Lincolns from the station between 1946 and 1951, briefly returning in 1951 with the Boeing Washington before moving to RAF Coningsby. No. 12 Squadron passed through in 1946 with Lancasters and Lincolns before departing for RAF Binbrook.

4. The Canberra interlude

Between the piston-engined heavies and the V-bombers, Waddington briefly hosted jet bombers. Nos. 21 and 27 Squadrons arrived in May 1955 with the English Electric Canberra B.2, operating from Waddington until both disbanded at the end of December 1957.

5. The V-force: Waddington's Vulcan squadrons

Waddington's most famous era began in 1957, when the station became a V-bomber base. No. 83 Squadron was the first RAF squadron to receive the Avro Vulcan, taking delivery of the B.1 at Waddington in May 1957 before moving to RAF Scampton in August 1960.

No. 101 Squadron arrived in June 1961 and flew the Vulcan B.1 and B.2 until disbanding in August 1982. No. 44 Squadron reformed at Waddington in August 1960 and flew the Vulcan until December 1982. No. 50 Squadron reformed at the airfield in August 1962 and operated the Vulcan B.1, B.2 and the air-to-air refuelling B.2K variant until March 1984 — the last Vulcan squadron, and the end of the RAF's Vulcan era. No. 9 Squadron also flew the Vulcan B.2 from Waddington between 1975 and April 1982.

During the Falklands War in 1982, three Vulcan B.2s — one each from Nos. 44, 50 and 101 Squadrons — took part in Operation Black Buck, the long-range bombing raids on Port Stanley airfield. The aircraft, by then twenty-two years old, were chosen for their more powerful Rolls-Royce Olympus 301 engines. One of them, XM607, was stationed at Waddington and is preserved there today as the station's gate guardian.

6. The intelligence era

From the late 1980s Waddington's role shifted from bombing to intelligence gathering. No. 8 Squadron moved to Waddington in July 1991 and flew the Boeing E-3D Sentry airborne early warning aircraft until 2021, when the Sentry was retired and the squadron moved to RAF Lossiemouth to re-equip with the Wedgetail. No. 51 Squadron has operated signals intelligence aircraft from the station, flying the Nimrod R1 and, since 2013, the RC-135W Rivet Joint. No. 5 (Army Co-operation) Squadron flew the Sentinel R1 from Waddington until the aircraft was withdrawn in March 2021. No. 14 Squadron operates the Shadow R1 from the station today, and No. 13 Squadron operates the MQ-9A Reaper, with the Protector RG1 arriving with No. 31 Squadron from October 2023. The Red Arrows moved to Waddington in October 2022 when RAF Scampton closed.

7. Sources and further reading

Key references for this page include the station's own history as published by the Royal Air Force, Jefford's RAF Squadron history, the No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron Association, the No. 101 Squadron Association, and the International Bomber Command Centre digital archive. Dates of squadron arrivals and departures are taken from Jefford and the station history; where sources conflict, the more specific squadron-level record has been preferred.