As part of our 80th Anniversary celebrations, a reminder of just how controversial the creation of the Pathfinders was. When the formation of the Path Finder Force was first being discussed in the first half of 1942, the name used in RAF memoranda and papers was the ‘Target Finding Force’. Harris’s correspondence with Charles Portal, Chief of Air Staff, the head of the RAF, makes clear how violently he was opposed to the whole concept of a target-finding force, which concept eventually had to be forced upon him by the Air Ministry after a direct order from Churchill, the Prime Minister.

Read the full article: The Pathfinders: Controversial Beginnings

Drawing by Bryan de Grineau.

Harris, centre, at his desk at Bomber Command HQ. “The Illustrated London News”, 26 February 1944.