Navigational Equipment: Captain Field’s Improved Parallel
On December 12, 2022 by RAF Pathfinders ArchiveDudley Archer was an outstanding navigator who flew two tours with the Pathfinders (see his impressive decorations in THE PATHFINDER EAGLE).
He was on the 582 Squadron crew of Ted Swales on the operation in which Ted Swales won a posthumous VC; the rest of the crew, including Archer, survived. The date was 23 February 1945; for further details see THE THREE PATHFINDER VICTORIA CROSSES.
The Archive has a large number of navigational logs and maps completed by Archer on his many operations, but sadly the log for 23 February 1945 appears to have gone down with the aircraft.
What cannot have been on the aircraft is the small collection of navigational instruments which once belonged to Dudley Archer and which are now in the Archive, amongst them the splendidly named ‘Captain Field’s Improved Parallel’. (See also: A WAR ARTIST AND THE PATHFINDERS)
The Dudley Archer archive was donated by Sue Crowle and Stephen Dixon in November 2018.
