There are dated photographs that show that the airfield was already in use for flying training by Royal Naval pilots in the summer of 1917, although no documents supporting this have ever been found.

The photographs show contemporary hangars, sheds and aircraft already in place around grassed runways and uniformed Royal Naval trainee pilots from the HMS Daedalus facility at Cranwell receiving instruction.

What is on record is the minutes of a conference held at the Scopwick airfield in November 1917 that confirmed its suitability for conversion to a training depot station in its own right.

On 12 January 1918 the War Office issued the authority notice for the site to be formally taken over under the Defence of the Realm Regulations.

[4] Early accommodation for personnel was under canvas and the first pilots arrived on 28 March 1918, commanded by Major John H D’Albiac a former Royal Marines aviator.

The party left Royal Flying Corps Portholme Meadow aerodrome in Huntingdonshire and moved to Scopwick, bringing Handley Page bombers with them.

RAF Scopwick aerodrome was deemed officially open with their arrival, although the newly established Royal Air Force did not formally come into existence until four days later on 1 April 1918.

In April 1922 the school was disbanded and the station placed on care and maintenance, when the RAF contracted further after the end of the war.

[6] Between 1929 and 1936 the appearance of the station changed dramatically and most of the original wooden 1917/1918 hangars, barrack blocks and offices were demolished and replaced with substantial brick structures.

12 Group RAF Lima Sector Operations bunker, now the station museum, was constructed at a cost in 1936 of £5,000.

With the squadron came the soon-to-be-famous officer Guy Gibson, who would be awarded a Victoria Cross as the commander of the Dambusters.

With the station's complement of pilots expanding nearby Wellingore Hall was requisitioned as a second officers' mess.

[10] In late August 1940 a single German Junkers Ju 88 bomber appeared suddenly out of the mist and dropped its load of bombs on the station, all of them missing the runways and buildings to explode harmlessly on open ground.

It was decided to relocate the 12 Group Sector Operations Centre away from further danger and it moved to a luxurious setting in the west wing of Blankney Hall where it stayed for the remainder of the war.

[12] American-born pilot and poet John Gillespie Magee flying for the Canadian air force was killed at the age of 19 on 11 December 1941 while stationed at RAF Digby with No.

Magee is buried at the war graves section of Scopwick churchyard along with 49 other aviators from local airfields and five German aircrew.

Highly useful information in the form of diagrams and detailed explanations were then distributed to bomb disposal technicians for instructional purposes.

[15] Airfield guarding duties during the war were covered initially by a variety of Army units and later by several squadrons the RAF Regiment.

When the invasion took place all of the squadrons relocated to captured airfields in France and Digby became an almost deserted 'ghost town'.

Those airmen had flown Hurricane, Spitfire, Defiant, Blenheim, Beaufighter, Mosquito, Mustang, Wellington, Oxford and Anson aircraft.

The station had also hosted the full range of visiting RAF heavy bombers and their crews, as well as no fewer than 30 USAAF B-17Gs on a foggy night in November 1944.

[16] Following the end of World War II Digby increasingly took on a non-flying role for RAF Technical Training Command.

[17] The station badge was awarded in July 1952 and depicts a white crane superimposed over a maple leaf.

54 Signals Unit was established in 2014 and provides processing, exploitation, and dissemination of all UK air-derived electronic surveillance data.

It provides direct support to strategic decision making and operations and is made up of personnel from all three services.

The JSSO also conducts research into new communications systems and techniques in order to provide operational support to static and deployed units of the armed forces.

591 Signals Unit (591 SU) is a communications and electronic security monitoring organisation providing services to the RAF.

1 Radio School at RAF Cosford and provides training to personnel of the Armed Forces and civilians.

[29] Trent Wing Air Training Corps manages staff and cadets stretching across 31 ATC squadrons in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

[30] RAF Digby is also home to the Sector Operations Room Museum which was opened by Air Chief Marshal Sir John Allison on 30 May 1997.