Rochester Airport

[Dave Smith]

If a Very light from the ground, a Green would mean Yes but a Red No ( runway too short or whatever). I suspect your Green was either from the a/c or from the ground as  Sterlings regularly took off & landed, so a B17 should have been ok in an emergency.

[castle261]

Update from KHF.
While out cycling past the airport, A B17 Flying Fortress came over flying low, then a green flare shot into the air, either indicating `injured aboard permission to land `from the aircraft,  or it came from
the ground, meaning `permission denied, runway too short`. I cycled on towards Maidstone.
Whether the B17 flew on, it was going towards Essex --- Date 1944/5