Latest Information
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…
