RAF PATHFINDERS ARCHIVE
Fatal Mosquito Crash at Wyton, 4 November 1944
Although Pathfinder Mosquito crews did not have the same attrition rate as those flying in Lancasters and Halifaxes, their work was still highly dangerous. The light-weight Mosquito aircraft was liable to break up in an accident, as happened on 4…
35 Squadron Crew at Wedding
It seldom happens that a photograph with unknown aircrew in it gets even partially identified, but amazingly this has happened with the photograph we featured almost exactly one year ago of an unknown Pathfinder crew at a wedding. The man…
Barr Crew, 7 Squadron
In January this year we featured a magazine cover with a lovely picture of a bulldog posing as ‘Pilot Officer Prune’ and his unknown human friend, a pilot. We later discovered that the pilot was Flight Lieutenant Leslie Barr. A…
Post-War Happiness
We would like to share this wonderful cover for the RAF journal Air Mail, which was published in October 1948. It makes an antidote to the tragic stories often told on this website.
Condolence Letter from Pathfinder Gunner, 7 Squadron
Working on the post yesterday on the condolence letter to Jespersen’s father reminded me of another condolence letter, this time written on the Pathfinder station at Oakington in December 1943. It concerned a friend, Bob Butler, who was stationed with…
Jespersen Condolence Letter
From an unknown official to Jespersen’s father: The Air Force refers to your visit some time back and it is with sorrow that we have to confirm that your son, Lt. Finn Varde Jespersen, was shot down during the night of…
A Bit More about the Catalogue
A new method of cataloguing has been adopted which it is hoped will finally clear the log-jam of names and crews we would like to see online. Pages will be added as and when they are completed. Amongst the first…
Jack Blair, Ward and Sauvage Crews
Jack Blair was a highly dedicated officer who flew more than his fair share of ops. In 1943, he was a member of John Sauvage‘s crew on 97 Squadron; in 1944, having moved to 156 Squadron, he was flying with…
Cataloguing the Archive
We are starting a new method of cataloguing the Archive, and in time the website will be reorganised to reflect this, but time being short and hands being few it is going to take a while. The first page from…
Model Lancaster, O-Orange
This fabulous radio-controlled model Lancaster may make you smile, standing so proudly in front of the tomato plants, though she is sure to be a very different beast when she flies. There is a tragic background story to this icon…
Update to Lionel Williams’ Page
We have received some very interesting details about Lionel Williams, a pilot in 156 Squadron, from his son, amongst which was the classic story of how his name in the RAF became Tom. ‘When he was recruited he was asked…
Colin Drew and Sugarpuss
It’s always good when one answers one’s own questions about ten seconds after posing them in a mystified manner. This appears to be the right Colin Drew in the Supplement to The London Gazette, dated 7 December 1943. And it…
Lancaster Art: Sugarpuss, 83 Squadron
This rather fabulous photograph (it’s a great pity about the poor condition) shows what is thought to possibly be the 83 Squadron crew of Colin Drew (third from right, and possibly a navigator) standing next to their gloriously decorated Lancaster…
Update to Baker & Stevens, 97 Squadron
Earlier this year we received a very nice colourised version of the lovely photograph of Hugh Baker, standing outside a rather grand house in Hastings in 1942. Due to much dedicated local sleuthing, the actual house has been identified. See…
O Valiant Hearts
Ernest Deverill, the much-decorated 97 Squadron pilot killed on Black Thursday, whose medals, logbooks and other memorabilia are on display at RAF Wyton, is buried at St Mary’s, Docking, Norfolk. The epitaph on his gravestone comes from the same hymn…
Joan Beech and 105 Squadron
More on Joan Beech’s book One Waaf’s War and the pages which describe 105 Squadron. Here is a priceless anecdote about a pilot named Jimmy Mills whose navigation skills when driving a car seem to have been slightly off-whack. Joan…
105 Squadron: War Graves, Bergen, and RAF Bourn
In May 1941 105 Squadron was flying Blenheims and was based at Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland. The war graves in this photograph on our sister site are for two members of the squadron who were killed that month in Norway. In…
Films on the Air War
News about three films on the Air War, the first with direct Pathfinder connections, the other two concerning other interesting aspects of the Allied bombing campaign. Firstly, the docudrama Hero which has recently been released. Filmed on a shoestring budget, it has no…
Update: Finn Varde Jespersen, D-Day
To add to the previous information on Finn Varde Jespersen, the Royal Norwegian Air Force pilot who was lost with all his crew on D-Day when flying with 97 Squadron, we have a very interesting photograph of him and fellow…
Jespersen Crew, D-Day Commemorations
We have been sent this lovely photograph of the D-Day commemorations for the Jespersen crew, who were shot down and all killed on 6 June 1944. The memorial is north-west of Osmanville in the churchyard of St Clements. With thanks…
97 Squadron Losses on D-Day
97 Squadron lost its charismatic Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Carter, on D-Day. It also lost the Jespersen crew, most of whom were Norwegians. Whilst there were other Pathfinder casualties on that day, for me these two crews are amongst the…
A Little Detail about Thackway Crash
The Thackway crash, referred to in our post just now, has a tiny echo in the uniform of the moth-eaten bear, known as Bobby Bear, who until recently was on display in the Black Thursday cabinet at RAF Wyton. The…
Thackway Crew Plane Crash
We have been very interested to find out that there is a Millennium Walk which allows walkers to get close to the site of the Thackway crew’s crash (on what was known as The Hay) on 17 December 1943. http://www.hardwick-cambs.org.uk/footpaths-walks/…
Re-dedication at Great Gransden
The beautiful church at Great Gransden, which was the local church for 405 Squadron at Gransden Lodge, contains a splendid window to the memory of the bomber boys, many of whom were Canadians. The window was dedicated thirty years ago,…
A Final Note on John Sauvage’s Funeral
John was buried in a suitably dramatic coffin. We were privileged to have been sent a preview of the design some days beforehand, but these photographs show show the dramatic reality of the actual coffin, enhanced by the visual impact…
Eulogy at John Sauvage’s Funeral
John’s funeral took place yesterday, on 29 April 2019, and we have asked permission from the family to publish this very touching, and sometimes very funny, EULOGY of John, written by his son Paul. It tells a great deal about…
Harris’s Office, Bomber Command HQ
Further to the previous post and the Bryan de Grineau drawings in The Illustrated London News, 26 February 1944, it has suddenly become clear that the drawings are closely related to the Press photograph of Harris using a stereopticon which…
Photography in the Air War
In February we featured Captain Bryan de Grineau’s drawing of Lancaster gunners ‘Hotting-up‘ which was published in The Illustrated London News in December 1943. Now here is another fascinating Bryan de Grineau drawing, also from The Illustrated London News, of the…
John Sauvage’s Funeral
John’s funeral will be on Monday 29th April 2019 at 3.00 pm. This will be held at Harwood Park Crematorium, Watton Road, Stevenage SG2 8XT. The family have issued an open invitation and all are welcome to attend. Although this…
PFF Memorial Dedication Postponed
Here is a message from John Clifford, one of our Trustees and Senior Curator at the Pathfinder Collection at Wyton: Dear All It is with deep regret that due to circumstances outside my control or influence, the dedication for the…
The PFF & H2S, continued
Earlier this week we posted a page on H2S, a radar aid used extensively by the Pathfinders. Two connected pages concern the wartime death, in a Halifax crash, of Alan Blumlein, the inventor of H2S, and what was done after…
Bennett & The Russians, continued
In January we posted on Bennett and the Russians, not realising that there is a rather wonderful story in Bennett’s autobiography Pathfinder to which we should have drawn attention. So here it is at last. It is presumably the explanation why Bennett was…
John Sauvage, 97 Squadron
We have received the very sad news this morning that John Sauvage, who so recently celebrated his 100th birthday, died yesterday after a short illness. We will be giving further details of John’s career in the RAF later this week.…
La Spezia, 13 April ’43, Carrier Pigeons
We have recently been sent a number of very interesting photographs of the Montgomery crew (97 Squadron) which we will display on the website shortly. However, one particular detail on one of the photographs immediately jumped out in view of…
The PFF & H2S, Radar Aid
This week we are publishing three connected pages on the Pathfinders and H2S, starting with one about H2S itself. H2S produced a map of the ground over which the aircraft using the equipment was flying. The highly accurate navigation and…
A Lancaster is Going to Germany
The last post on carrier pigeons and Bomber Command has proved highly popular. That gives the perfect excuse to share a favourite magazine cover from November 1942, entitled ‘A Lancaster is Going to Germany’. The text in the centre of…
Carrier Pigeons in the Bomber War
It’s amazing how lots of little things relating to the same subject come together at the same time when one is researching. In February we published a page which gave a post and a page on Lancaster Gunners “Hotting Up”.…
Pathfinder Collection, Wyton
People sometimes confuse the Pathfinder Collection at RAF Wyton, Heritage Centre, and ourselves, the RAF Pathfinders Archive, which is understandable given the similarity of the names. Just to clarify: while the Pathfinder Collection and ourselves share digital material, and some…
Aircraft Codes & Letters
Pathfinder and Main Force Lancasters had identifying squadron codes and individual letters which made them easy to recognise in the air. For example, OF-D stood for 97 Squadron aircraft D-Dog (D-Donald at a later date). For a list of PFF…
Path Finder Force Memorial, NMA
In our post of 5 September 2017, we wrote that the Path Finder Force Memorial had been completed and had been unveiled at RAF Wyton on Pathfinder Sunday. It was due to be relocated to the National Memorial Arboretum in…
The Last Lancaster
We have recently been working with the logbook, prisoner of war log, and other papers of John Henry O’Neill, a bomb aimer with 405 Squadron, who was shot down in July 1944. There is a great deal of interest in…
7 Squadron Pilot & Bomb Aimer, Reunited
Here’s an amazing story. We will let Peter Banting tell it in his own words: Have just discovered your great website, may be interesting for you to learn that, as a radar navigator and bomb aimer with 7 Squadron, am…
Lancaster Gunners ‘Hotting-up’
Before flying on ops, gunners got into their electrically heated flying suits, and it seems this process required quite a bit of help. A recent acquisition for the Archive is an Illustrated London News drawing which shows a Nissen hut…
Pilot Officer Prune, Again
During the massive clear-up of the office, this amusing little document turned up in a stray copy of EVIDENCE IN CAMERA, the wartime RAF photographic publication. The document is Transport Command, not Bomber Command, but whoever drew up the spoof…
John Sauvage, a P.S.
The explanation for the mix-up about nationality is now explained. As John’s son-in-law explains: The Seychelles used to be French , but we won them as “spoils of war “ at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The locals speak…
John Sauvage, 100th Birthday
John Sauvage, one of 97 Squadron’s most distinguished pilots, is 100 years old this weekend. The main image on this post is of John with his crew discussing arcane matters next to their Lancaster at Bourn in the summer of…
TEE EMM
The link wasn’t working on yesterday’s post and it now is. However, here it is again. TEE EMM & PILOT OFFICER PRUNE. TEE EMM, as previously stated, was the technical manual for the RAF, which contained a huge number of…
More on Pilot Officer Prune
Further to yesterday’s post, we have now included a page on TEE EMM, with two rather wonderful cartoons of Pilot Officer Prune, one with his dog. As we said yesterday, we were checking up on the identity of the man…
Pilot Officer Prune
Pilot Officer Prune was a fictional character, hapless and inefficient, who mainly starred in TEE EMM, the technical memorandum which was circulated in the Air Force. It is the dog who is being called Pilot Officer Prune in the magazine…
Cook’s Tours
When the war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945, the aircrew had far too much spare time on their hands. As Joan Beech writes in ONE WAAF’S WAR: After the cessation of hostilities, there were hundreds of aircrew cooling…
Desecration of Bomber Command War Memorial, London
Like everyone with any respect for our war dead, we were horrified by the attack on the Bomber Command Memorial in London on 21 January. We hope the police catch whoever was responsible as soon as possible. The RAF Benevolent…
Charles Owen in the late 1950s
Charles Owen, who flew with 97 Squadron during the war and was one of the crews on Black Thursday, went on to have a distinguished career in the RAF. Here is some footage posted by AP Archive of when he…
Bennett and the Sinking of the Tirpitz
And here is another little fact about Bennett which I have been sitting on for some months. It follows on our post on 26 August last year about how Bennett was shot down whilst trying to sink the Tirpitz. He…
Bennett and the Russians
Here are two curious little facts that I came across this afternoon whilst having a massive tidy-up in the office. Bennett, the AOC of the Pathfinders, was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky by the Russians, presumably just after the…
Leslie Laver and His Mother
Tonight is the 75th anniversary of the death of Leslie Laver, ‘Les’, who was my father’s rear gunner before the Thackway crew was broken up by death and injury. He died with most of the Steven crew on the Dutch…
Ken Newman, 97 Squadron
Ken Newman (second from right) who flew with the Steven crew and missed their fatal flight on 14 January 1944 due to a bad skin complaint, will be 98 years old this coming Sunday. Ironically, that is only four days…
Wakey-Wakey Pills
Here is a fascinating 2016 article on the use of Benzedrine, colloquially known as Wakey-Wakey pills, by the RAF. As most people who follow this website will know, operational bomber aircrew sometimes used such pills to keep themselves awake during…
Film: Lancaster
We were sent the link to this film by Philip Stevens a couple of days ago. Although it seems to have been released 5 years ago, none of us had seen it before. It is short (12 minutes) but very…
Farewell to 2018
It has been a very successful first year for the RAF Pathfinders Archive, and we would like to thank everyone who has contributed in any way, from sending Pathfinder material to making donations to buying our publications to supporting us…
Request for Info
Here is one for the sleuths. Can any one identify where this wonderful illustration of a Lancaster with all its radar and wireless aids has come from? It was clearly in a magazine article because of the numbering on the…
Den Burg Cemetery, 24 December
On 24 December in the late afternoon, volunteers from the Aeronautical and War Museum on Texel, the Netherlands, placed candles on all the war graves at Den Burg Cemetery. This enchanting and poignant ceremony of Remembrance was led by Bram…
Happy Christmas, One and All
RAF Hospital Ely, Christmas Day 1943, with patients, some of whom were probably survivors of the Black Thursday crashes. The lady at the back (to the right of the gentleman in the white shirt) is the wife of James Benbow,…
Kenyon Crew, Christmas Eve 1944
Last Christmas Eve, we included details of the Kenyon crew from 35 Squadron at Graveley, who crashed just after take-off on 24 December 1944. Very recently, we were sent a detailed dossier on the crash compiled by Paul Herod. Here…
And One Last Footnote on Black Thursday …
The loss cards for the seven 97 Squadron Lancasters which were wrecked – five in crashes and two abandoned when their crews baled out – were clearly filled in as a batch because they have the same phrasing on each…
Kirkwood Crew, Black Thursday
We would like to identify the crew members whose photograph appeared in yesterday’s post, there not being time to do so yesterday. They were from the Kirkwood crew, who sadly were all killed when their aircraft crashed close to the…
Black Thursday Exhibition, RAF Wyton
Many grateful thanks to John Clifford who organised the revamp to the Black Thursday exhibition at the Pathfinder Collection, Heritage Centre, RAF Wyton, pictures of which can be seen here. John also showed us round yesterday. He was on top…
Black Thursday Commemorations, RAF Wyton
It was exceptionally good weather yesterday morning for the service of Remembrance for Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943, and for the laying of the wreath and flowers at the memorial afterwards. The very fine memorial window to the Pathfinders formed…
Black Thursday Commemorative Day
On the way to RAF Wyton for the Commemorations of 16/17 December 1943. Will be posting tomorrow on the new exhibition and on the day’s events. JENNIE MACK GRAY
Black Thursday Week: FIDO
In December 1943, the only real facilities available to land in weather conditions of extremely poor visibility were FIDO and a system known as SBA (Standard Beam Approach). FIDO, the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation, was at that time only…
Black Thursday Week: “Prompt and Courageous Action”
There must have been many quiet acts of courage at the scenes of the crashes on the night of 16/17 December 1943. Most would have gone unnoticed except by those present, and we are not aware of any other medals…
Black Thursday Week: The Canadians
Numerically speaking, 97 Squadron was the Pathfinder squadron most seriously affected by the disaster of Black Thursday. However, 405 Squadron was also hit particularly hard. It was often called the Canadian squadron despite Bennett’s insistence that its aircrew were only 50% Canadian…
Black Thursday Week: Bobby Bear & Joe Mack
This tattered object is Bobby Bear. He can perhaps be seen as an emblem of the few who survived the crashes on Black Thursday but were seriously injured. He was the childhood toy of Joe Mack, of the Thackway crew,…
Black Thursday Week: Charles Owen Diary Entry
Charles Owen kept an operations diary, and one of the most interesting pages is the one he wrote for Black Thursday. This particular entry has often been quoted but there is nothing like seeing the actual handwriting. One of the…
75th Anniversary Black Thursday – Commemorations
For the next seven days we will be posting about aspects of the terrible night of 16/17 December 1943. There will be a commemoration at RAF Wyton next Sunday, details of which have already been given on this website, but…
William Johnson Vaughan, Valentine Baker Crew
Purely by coincidence, this post also concerns the crew of a pilot named Baker. Valentine Baker and his crew were lost on 11 August 1943. Those who were killed are buried at Durnbach Cemetery in Bavaria (Bayern), see the beautiful…
Hugh Baker and Peter Stevens, 97 Squadron
Hugh Baker was killed on 30 July 1944 when his aircraft was shot down over France. Of the unusually large crew of nine, only three survived, including Squadron Leader Peter Stevens, who was 97 Squadron’s Navigation Officer. At this stage…
Harris transfers Pathfinder Squadrons to 5 Group
We have added a page to clarify what is a frequently misunderstood situation, how some Pathfinder squadrons could continue to act as pathfinders even though they had been transferred to 5 Group. Pathfinder Squadrons in 5 Group The decision by Harris,…
Ernest Deverill – Y-York after Augsburg
The featured image on this post is of battle damage to Y-York, Ernest Deverill’s aircraft on the Augsburg operation of 17 April 1942. Y-York took a terrible pounding. The laconic report on the aircraft’s battle damage given by Ernest and…
Commemorative Publications, 75th Anniversary of Black Thursday
The night of 16/17 December 1943, afterwards known as Black Thursday, saw the worst RAF bad weather losses of the whole war. A heavy fog caused severe problems for home-coming aircraft and there were multiple fatal crashes. Amongst the dead…
The Royal Flying Corps – Lawrence Williamson
Brought round by my neighbour Susan this morning – her great-uncle Lawrence Williamson was first in the Lancers and then in the RFC as an Observer (the ‘O’ on his tunic can be clearly seen). He survived the war and…
Cecil Macgown and the Royal Flying Corps
Cecil Macgown, the Group Medical Officer of the Pathfinders, usually known as Doc Macgown or ‘Mac’, was in the RFC during the First World War. In one momentous letter to his sister in 1917, he wrote: “Still alive and getting…
The Royal Naval Air Service
Re: our commemorative post on the RFC and the RAF in WWII, we are grateful to have been reminded about the First World War contribution made by the men of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The RNAS was under…
Remembering the RFC and the RAF, WWI
With Remembrance Sunday tomorrow falling exactly on the 100th Anniversary of the end of the First World War, we remember all the pioneering airmen of those days of conflict, and those who followed after them in the Second World War.…
75th Anniversary of Black Thursday, at Wyton
Arrangements are firming up for the Black Thursday 75th Anniversary commemorations at the Pathfinder Collection, RAF Wyton. There will be a considerable change to the existing display and some new storyboards. In addition, we are delighted that Charles Owen’s family…
Australian Friends in Norman McIntyre’s Album
In Norman McIntyre’s photo album there is a photograph of him with three of Australian friends in the RAAF. Photographs of the graves of Vince, Jeff, and Norm have been posted on the WAR GRAVES AND REMEMBRANCE website: Four Australian…
Norman McIntyre’s Photo Album
Norman McIntyre of the Brill crew, who was killed on 16 December 1943 over Berlin, kept a small photograph album which has pictures of the earlier part of his life in the RAAF. It ends abruptly with photographs of the…
Deverill and Le Creusot Op, 17 October 1942
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Le Creusot op, one of the most daring of the war, when 94 Lancasters flew in formation across France to wreck the Schneider arms plant 170 miles south-east of Paris. One of those flying…
Per Ardua
Jennie Mack Gray, our Chairperson, who began the Pathfinders Archive website with 97 Squadron in 2001 and has placed all her material on permanent loan with the Archive, now has a new website, PER ARDUA, which will be covering various…
35 Squadron, the Erk and the UXB
The Flying Control buildings on PFF airfields were at the centre of numerous dramatic incidents and tragedies. It is good to read of one potentially very dangerous episode at RAF Graveley which ended happily, not to say amusingly, for all…
Deverill Collection & Gathering at RAF Wyton, 16 December 2018
There will be a gathering at RAF Wyton on 16 December this year to honour the 75th anniversary of Black Thursday, and of the death of Ernest Alfred Deverill and so many other fine aircrew. The exact details and timings…
Link Between 7 Squadron and Churchill
Research often turns up the strangest connections. I was looking for information about Frederick Denzil James Thompson, a PFF Navigator with DFC and Bar, who was the son of Churchill’s bodyguard, Detective Inspector Walter Henry Thompson. Thompson senior had a…
Unknown PFF Crew at Wedding
We have received a delightful picture of an unknown PFF bomber crew. It is cheerful, happy and informal, and the crew are obviously close friends. Sent by Paul Smith, it was taken in early 1944 as his father, the young…
The People’s Mosquito – Additional Details
Following our recent post on the Mosquito film footage from August 1944, we would like to add that it was donated to the People’s Mosquito by the family of Brian Harris DFC and was shot while Brian was serving with 627…
Mosquito Week ends
After a very successful Mosquito Week, we are saying goodbye to the Wooden Wonder for a few days and looking at some other topics. Our farewell photograph comes from 627 Squadron: 627 Squadron: Aircrew and Ground Crew We will, of course,…
Mosquito Squadrons & Oboe
To refine their accuracy in marking the targets, the Pathfinders used sophisticated navigational aids, one of which was Oboe. 109 Squadron, flying Oboe-fitted Mosquitoes, were often leaders in the bombing raids, and they had a number of star aircrew, including…
RAF Accident Report, Parlato and Orchard
This report is not only of great interest because of the men involved in this particular accident, but also because it shows us the type of report which was compiled on flying accidents by the RAF. Unfortunately, due to the…
Sid Parlato, Mosquito Pilot
In our two posts on Monday and Tuesday of this week, we gave some details of Sid Parlato’s time as a Mosquito pilot in the Pathfinders. Since then we have been contacted by Parlato’s great-nephew, Pete McGraw, himself ex-Air Force…
The People’s Mosquito
Here is something well worthy of attention during our Mosquito Week. The People’s Mosquito has a simple vision (and a great many highly qualified and enthusiastic people to back it up): to not only return a de Havilland Mosquito to…
Mossie Week, Continued
Further to yesterday’s post, which included photos of Dai Thomas and Sid Parlato, here is a page in Dai Thomas’s logbook, made when he and his pilot, Sid Parlato, were at 139 Squadron at Wyton during September to November 1943.…
Mosquito Week
We’re having a Mosquito week this week, inspired by the wonderful project The People’s Mosquito which we will be giving more details of in the coming days. Below: article in an American paper, the Evening Post, 3 March 1945. Dai…
Superstitions and Lucky Mascots
From ‘Beating the Odds: Superstition and Human Agency in RAF Bomber Command, 1942-1945 by S P MacKenzie, WAR IN HISTORY, 2015. Mackenzie makes the case that Bomber Command superstitions and mascots kept crews flying when the odds were stacked against…
Bennett and the Tirpitz
Leadership was a key quality in sustaining aircrew morale, and the commander of the Pathfinders, Don Bennett, was above all things an inspirational leader. He had immense courage and steadfastness of nerve. In his book Pathfinder, he tells the story…
Donald Schofield Barker, 582 Squadron
Donald Barker, a navigator, has been identified in the group photograph of 582 Squadron taken on VE Day. This is highly unusual as the identities of the men in these wonderful squadron photographs tends to be lost over the years…
The Peenemünde Raid , 17/18 August 1943
One of the reasons why Bennett may have been late in sending the message about the first anniversary of the Pathfinders (see previous post) is that he may have been preoccupied with the Peenemünde raid, which took place around the…
First Anniversary of the PFF, 1943
15 August will be the 76th anniversary of the creation of the Path Finder Force in 1942. The following year, slightly belatedly, Bennett sent a Special Order of the Day to his squadrons, saying that much had been achieved but…
PFF Navigation Training Unit, NTU
The Path Finder Force had a training unit, the NTU, to teach the highly specialised Pathfinder techniques before the crews moved on to their Pathfinder squadrons. For most of its existence, the Unit was based at Warboys, also home for…
75th Anniversary Black Thursday – Kirby & Stephens
Further to our post yesterday about Billy Colson, on Black Thursday he had taken the place of Ivor Glyn Stephens as bomb aimer on the Mackenzie crew. Stephens would survive the war, as would Keith Kirby, who had been in…
75th Anniversary Black Thursday – Billy Colson
Over the course of the next four months we will be making a pictorial list with short description for the aircrew flying on Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943. We begin with Billy Colson of the Mackenzie crew, who lost his…
Bennett on the PFF Mosquitoes
“The experts on the Air Staff who turned down the Mosquito as a type in the early days might be interested in the argument which subsequently became current to the effect that one Mosquito was worth seven Lancasters. For those…
Black Thursday – 75th Anniversary
Dear All Many of you will know that this December sees the 75th anniversary of Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943, in which the Pathfinders lost 50 men killed and several seriously injured due to fog in England after the return…
How Did this Mosquito Land?
We have been sent some sensational photographs of a Mosquito that made it safely to the ground in what can only be described as a tattered condition. To see these pictures and possibly answer the great mystery about what happened,…
Paradog, Salvo
Nothing to do with the Pathfinders but also about a flying dog, this time in the wartime USAAF, which raises an interesting point connected to today’s earlier post on Pathfinder Pets If these dogs were flying with their owners, how…
Pathfinder Pets & Tich Palmer
Further to our posts way back in March about Pathfinder pets, we have been given permission to use a much better image of Clayton’s crew with Clayton’s spaniel. The man holding the dog is Tich Palmer, who later went on…
Fletcher Crew – Further Update
A more detailed photograph of James White and Harry Page, together Wally Layne (with thanks to David Layne). This has been added to the Fletcher crew page, and also a link has been set up between Jack Beesley and the…
Fletcher Crew
A couple of updates to the Fletcher crew page: a picture of the crew, including James White who had just finished his tour when the crew was shot down, and Ken Foster who took White’s place and very sadly was…
54 Course, Mid-Upper Gunners, 16.4.43
Many photographs survive of Bomber Command men on one or more of the various course they took on the way to becoming aircrew. Most of these photographs have no names on them, which is always frustrating for researchers. The photograph…
1409 Met Flight – James Henry, Engine Fitter
It’s always wonderful to see the men who maintained the Pathfinder aircraft, and this is a particularly nice photograph of James Frances Henry with other ground crew in front of a Met Flight mosquito. James was with 1409 Met Flight from…
The Lure of Flying
The lure of flying for people growing up in the 1920s and 1930s is hard to appreciate now when commercial flying is so commonplace. Then, flying was ultra-modern and incredibly glamorous, and airshows (as in the photograph above) fed this…
Bomber Command’s Greatest Enemy – the Weather
Bad weather killed many experienced crews, including those who were only carrying out training duties. Icing could be particularly lethal. Today we have added a page about certain aspects of ICING as it affected aircrew, sometimes lethally. A reporting system…
George (Johnny) Walker & the Dailey Crew
The uniform of George Walker (usually known in the RAF as Johnny after the whisky) was recently donated to the Pathfinder Collection at RAF Wyton by his son, Mick. They also have a copy of George’s logbook. George remained in…
Little Staughton
Ruined or decayed wartime airfields are one of the most evocative sights in Britain. Inevitably many of them are now being built over. These pictures of Little Staughton, taken by Matt Barker in the summer of 2017, are full of…
Bomber Harris – Interview 1943
The last post on Bomber Harris for the time being. In 1943, E Colston Shepherd, the editor of The Aeroplane, interviewed Harris both at his office and at home, the latter being Springfields at Great Kingshill, close to High Wycombe’s…
Bomber Harris – More on Yesterday’s Post
A couple of minor clarifications about yesterday’s post. ‘Bomber Harris is seldom equated with a sense of humour’ – we meant, of course, in the general public’s view, including that of people abroad. The standard identikit image of Harris is…
Bomber Harris and the London Blitz
Continuing our occasional series on the RAF and Bomber Command leadership, here is a priceless story about Bomber Harris and the London Blitz in 1940. Bomber Harris is seldom equated with a sense of humour but this is surely what…
Drawing by German POW of PFF Airman
Portrait of Dennis Walters (possibly of 635 Squadron) This sketch is thought to be by a German prisoner of war, Kurt Kranz, who was conscripted for German Military service in 1940, and served in Norway and Finland. He died in 1997, aged…
Peter Drane, from Lancaster to Mosquito
Peter Drane was a 97 Squadron Lancaster pilot who, in a most unusual move, transferred to a Mosquito squadron, 139 Squadron, after completing his tour in August 1944. His navigator did not want to transfer with him, and Peter crewed…
Deverill Collection and Black Thursday Anniversary
This year will be a busy one for the Archive. Following the acquisition of the Deverill Collection, we will be fund-raising this year in order to settle the interest-free loans from supporters which enabled us to buy the Collection at very…
Portal, Chief of Air Staff, & RAF Organisation
As part of our emphasis on the wider picture and on the wartime context in which the Pathfinders operated, we are giving details of how the RAF was organised in wartime and how it fitted into the structure of government.…
Scrapbook, 26th Birthday of RAF
More on the extremely tattered scrapbook in the Archive. Whilst looking through it, we discovered this gem, which we regret not having found two weeks ago in time for the 100th birthday of the RAF. Once again the anonymous aircraft…
Additional Page from Archive Scrapbook
Further to our post this afternoon about TALES FROM THE ARCHIVE No.7, it seems a shame not to publish part of a page from the tattered old scrapbook in the Archive which is mentioned in No.7. The scrapbook page has…
Bomber Command, Publicity, & the Augsburg Raid
Further to our previous post, we are now publishing the seventh issue of TALES FROM THE ARCHIVE, which is on the RAF’s PR war, and how the Augsburg raid was covered in the Press. It also shows how the existence…
Anniversary of the Augsburg Raid
Ernest Alfred Deverill, who was lost due to fog on Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943, survived many hazardous operations in his time but perhaps none more so than the Augsburg raid on 17 April 1942. Tales from the Archive this…
Update on Frank Smith & Patch the Dog
Further to our recent post about Frank Smith and Patch the Dog, Frank’s son-in-law has kindly sent a copy of Frank’s logbook and there is a very interesting entry on 4th May 1945 which reads: 13.10 Base to Juvincourt and…
Harris v. Portal, the Formation of the Path Finder Force, 1942
The latest Tales from the Archive goes right back to the very beginning of the Path Finder Force, at a time when it was being proposed under the name the Target Finding Force. Harris’ pugnacious opposition to the idea only…
RAF Missing Research
Our sister website, WWII Missing Research, War Graves, & Remembrance, has published an account of how the London Press were used to identify one particular Main Force crew, who had been buried as unknowns in France in September 1942. See…
Pathfinder pets – Clayton and his spaniel
Further to our post yesterday, I remembered that somewhere in the Archive there was another 97 Squadron dog. And here he is, a spaniel who belonged to the pilot Peter Clayton, DSO, DFC. Unfortunately the copy of the photo we…
Frank Smith & Patch the Dog
The most famous Bomber Command pet is Guy Gibson’s Labrador, Nigger. However, other dogs appear in photos of Bomber Command aircrew, some of whom traveled with their owners on bombing sorties. Frank Smith was with 97 Squadron at the end…
1409 Met Flight
1409 Met Flight’s primary duty was to ascertain the weather conditions over the targets before a bombing operation. They also checked weather conditions over the British Isles, which were critical to the safe take-off and landing of operational aircraft. This…
Soviet PoW Gift
Ralph Cecil Saunders, a navigator with 97 Squadron, was one of only two survivors of the crew of Kenneth Painter, which was shot down on 20 October 1943. The other survivor was Tom Andrews, the wireless operator. Saunders spent the…
Visiting the Pathfinder Collection at RAF Wyton
The RAF are currently completely revamping their whole website and, as part of this, the old Pathfinder Collection page is no longer accessible. Whilst we are more than happy to pass on contact details, you may wish to follow the…
100th Anniversary of the RAF
I am sure it will have escaped few people’s notice that it is the 100th anniversary of the RAF on 1 April. Whilst this is a momentous date historically speaking, the fabulous cake above says it all in a deliciously…
John and Charlie meet up again, 73 years on
On a bitterly cold day (the last day of February, when the weather really ought to know better and be acting vaguely like spring), here is a heart-warming story of two members of a 7 Squadron crew, John Ottewell and…
Adding Pages for each PFF Squadron
We are gradually adding individual pages, or groups of pages, for each PFF Squadron. Just added today is the summary list for the 20 PFF Squadrons by type, that is to say ‘Heavy’ (Lancaster, Wellington, Stirling, or Halifax – all…
Lionel Williams & His Daughter
The PFF squadron pages are gradually being reorganised so that each squadron has its own page, or group of pages. 156 Squadron is one of the first to be set up, and of the two current pages one is on…
RAF Pathfinders Archive, “Tales”, No. 5
Tales from the Archive this month is on Wally Layne’s wartime log. Wally was a member of a 97 Squadron crew which was shot down over Germany in September 1943, and he spent the rest of the war as a…
New Trustee: John Clifford
There has been a bit of a delay in announcing the good news but the Charity Commission has now been updated with the details of our new trustee, and we are delighted to welcome on board John Clifford, Senior Curator…
Navigation Notes
This image is from the notebook of John Conybeare Landon (see The Stories Behind the Gravestones on our sister site: RAF MISSING RESEARCH, WAR GRAVES, & REMEMBRANCE). Landon trained as a navigator in Canada and subsequently became a bomb aimer…
Air Ministry Casualty Branch, Oxford Street
Our sister site, RAF MISSING RESEARCH, WAR GRAVES, & REMEMBRANCE, has published a page on The Air Ministry Casualty Branch in Oxford Street, which dealt with many thousands of aircrew casualties – killed, missing, and wounded – during the years that…
“You Lucky People” Certificate, 1945
From time to time we include details of the air war which form the background to who the Pathfinders were and what they did. This particular oddity is such fun that we cannot resist it. It comes from RAF Station…
More on Christmas Eve Post
Referring back to one of our December posts Christmas Eve 1944, 35 Squadron on the loss of the Kenyon crew, we recently had an email from R Maddox who wrote: Just to add to information about the Christmas Eve 1944 crash…
Mystery Pathfinder
Here is a good old-fashioned needle-in-a-haystack query, but one which is funny and endearing as well. Around 1988, a little boy of about 10 years old, flying home from holiday, found himself sitting next to a ‘hefty, square built man…
Training in Canada
We are planning to do a small online exhibition on aircrew training overseas, but here is one sneak preview item, a rare survival of what must have been many hundreds of such telegrams, sent home by proud young men who…
RAF Missing Research
When the website for the Archive was set up, there was some debate as to whether to also include on it Jennie Gray’s huge archive on RAF missing research, but in the end it was decided it was best kept…
TALES FROM THE ARCHIVE: Frank McEgan
Some Pathfinders just stand out – whether from their striking personality, unusual looks, outstanding bravery, or the dramatic incidents which occurred whilst they were flying with the PFF. One such is Frank McEgan, to whom the latest issue of TALES…
Christmas Eve 1944, 35 Squadron
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were days like any other for Pathfinder and Main Force aircrew. The village of Great Paxton is just west of RAF Graveley, at perhaps a mile’s distance from the old airfield. The peaceful-looking village scene…
Tales from the Archive – Black Thursday Anniversary
This evening, 74 years ago, saw the death of all eight members of the Brill crew when their Lancaster was hit by flak and exploded over Berlin. Tales from the Archive No. 3 is dedicated to the extraordinary story of…
Black Thursday Display at RAF Wyton
Just in time for the 74th anniversary of Black Thursday, which begins tomorrow, the senior curator at the Pathfinder Collection, RAF Wyton, has created a display around the Deverill collection and other very evocative mementos of the night of 16/17…
Coningsby, 1944
As there has recently been so much information centred on Coningsby and 54 Base, a page has been set up and some photographs have been added of the briefing room for 97 Squadron at that station. The Coningsby page is…
Tales from the Archive – No 2
Another copy of TALES FROM THE ARCHIVE is now available, which has details of the Reid crew, the loss of Wing Commander Edward Leach Porter on the Stettin Bay Mining Operation, and the Missing Research and Enquiry Service. Tales from…
Tales From the Archive – No. 1
A little later than intended, the first TALES FROM THE ARCHIVE is published this afternoon. It contains more information about Norman Edmondson, mentioned in the last post, together with details of two interesting oddities in the Archive. There are also details…
Norman Thomson Edmondson, 156 Sqd
Lost on 30/31 March 1944 on the infamous Nuremburg raid. This was one of four 156 Squadron aircraft, flying from Upwood, which were shot down that night. The aircraft was brought down by a night fighter and crashed at Oberirsen,…
Child’s Eye View of the Pathfinders
We very seldom hear about what life was like for children on Bomber Command or PFF bases. For a wonderful child’s eye view of life on a Pathfinder base, including a fabulous anecdote about the legendary Mahaddie at a party…
Acquisition of Deverill Collection
The purchase of the DEVERILL collection was finally completed last week. This is the first major acquisition of the RAF Pathfinders Archive. It was very important to buy the collection not only because of Deverill’s iconic status in Bomber Command, 97…
Two Requests for Information
We have two unusual requests for information to post this morning. One concerns Jurik Herman, a Polish airman who flew as a Navigator in a Mosquito squadron. The other concerns an unknown airman whom we hope someone can identify, his…
Acquisition: Escape Maps
We have just acquired two Second World War escape maps, one of Germany into Poland, with the tip of Italy on the reverse, and one which is of Italy. They are now at the Pathfinder Collection at RAF Wyton, and…
Master List of Aircrew
There are some 500 aircrew on whom we hold information. The Master List appears for the first time today, Remembrance Sunday 2017, on the Catalogue page. This is the beginning of the projected database and it is very much a…
Crew Pages on the Website – Change of Policy
It has now been decided that due to the ever-increasing volume of data, we are going to have to adopt a new policy for the website and change the old established policy of having a separate crew page for each…
Aircrew Losses in the Netherlands and the North Sea – updated database
Jan Nieuwenhuis has just published the new release of his database on Allied aircraft losses in the Netherlands and the North Sea, the sea being where so many crews were lost on their way to or from Europe. The link…
Changing the Website
The website is currently being updated to a more modern and easy-to-follow format. Please excuse any oddities you may come across – everything will be ironed out as soon as possible.
Memorial to Steven Crew, and Remembrance on Texel
The Steven crew are commemorated on the Dutch island of Texel, where their aircraft was shot down. Texel has some very dedicated researchers, who have spent years ensuring that the memory of Allied aircrew is honoured.
Steven Crew
The Steven crew are one of the most important on this website, and Heavens knows why it took so long to transfer them from the old site. They have now been given a new and detailed page. This was prompted…
Tribute to the Path Finder Force
The Path Finder Monument has now been completed and was recently unveiled at RAF Wyton on Path Finder Sunday. It will be relocated to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, where it will remain permanently.
Mansbridge Crew – Gerry Cruwys
Unfortunately, in the transfer from the old website, the biography of Gerry Cruwys written by his niece, Debbie Kennett, was mislaid. It is now back on the Mansbridge crew page. See also this post on a video about the Ottignies…
Mansbridge Crew
Alain Libert, who for some years has been researching the Ottignies operation, 20 April 1944, and the loss of the Mansbridge crew, has produced a two-part video on the subject. Although it is in French, it can be easier to…
Jeff Pelletier – Black Thursday
We at last have two images of Jeff Pelletier, one of the last three pilots flying on 16/17 December 1943, Black Thursday, for whom we did not have a photograph. He was identified this year as being one of a…
Morse Code
One for the wireless operators, particularly David Dushman and Joe Mack. I am currently writing a chapter on David Dushman for my new book, and Joe Mack was my father. Jennie Mack Gray
Wakley Crew
The Wakley page has finally been transferred from the old website. This page is a good illustration of the cross-currents between crews, who did not necessarily fly their entire tour in the original seven-men group which had come from the…
Armstrong crew & Paul David
Claude David has recently contacted us to give the correct name for Paul David, his uncle, who was killed on his 23rd birthday on June 23 1943 over Utrecht. Sgt Jean Baptiste Sylviel Paul David (RCAF) was known at home…
A Wartime Station
RAF Station Bourn was the home of 97 Squadron for one year. This new page contains images, old and new, of the station.
Update on Doug Jones Crew
Doug Jones’ crew is one of those I have known about for several years, but have only just got round to putting more of the information on the crew online. This had been largely prompted by the arrival here of…
Moroney Crew
It was extremely rare for a bomber crew in dire trouble to be able to send a message before the aircraft came down, but this was the case for the Moroney crew on 22 March 1944, whose w/op transmitted from…
Burns Crew – Dolby
The Burns crew page has finally been set up properly, and a photograph of the Flight Engineer Earle George Dolby has been added. Burns Crew – Dolby
16/17 December 1943
Tonight, at about this time, the first of the 21 Lancasters would be departing from Bourn. Right now, on the darkening airfield, all of the engines would be roaring and the air would be electric. In three hours time, the…
Doc Macgown
The PFF Group Medical Officer was a highly impressive man known informally as Doc Macgown. For details of Macgown’s remarkable life, see this new page: PFF Staff – Doc MacGown
Eric Rimmington
I am very sad to inform you all that Eric Rimmington of the Benton crew passed away on 9th October 2016. He was 95 years old. As his daughter Joan wrote, Eric was ‘a wonderful, much loved and respected man…
McEgan Cine Film
Our last update on this memorial day concerns a unique piece of cine film, the only one we know of a member of 97 Squadron in wartime. Taken in 1943, it epitomises the glamour of RAF aircrew. The man in…
Black Thursday
As part of our commemoration of Black Thursday, we are posting an article by Doug Curtis, who flew that night and was one of the lucky survivors. Here is the link to Doug’s article, which was originally published almost 20…
Scott Crew Page Update and Addition of Loss Card
The Scott crew page has been updated with a new photograph of Sid Parrott and of the entire crew, posed in two stunning studio portraits, two months before their deaths on Black Thursday. These studio portraits are highly unusual as…
Update to Billing crew
Our thanks to Doug Curtis for pointing out an error on the Billing crew page – Tommy Hope was lost with the Ash crew, not the Edwards crew, as we had previously stated. Tommy was the only member of the…