There are hardly any photos of Donald Bennett, commander of the Path Finder Force, with his aircrew. He was exceedingly averse to publicity, unlike his great rival Ralph Cochrane of 5 Group.

We know of only two photographs of Bennett with operational PFF aircrew, the first being the one which we have used on many occasions. This page concerns the dating of the photograph and of a second image which was clearly taken at the same time.

The presence in the photograph of the Minister for Petroleum Warfare, Geoffrey Lloyd, and the fact that the time of year is summer, strongly suggests that this is a 35 Squadron crew at Graveley in the summer of 1944. Graveley was the site of the PFF’s FIDO installation which devoured thousands of gallons of petrol whenever it was fired up.  

FIDO at Graveley was not fully operational until November 1943. It is unlikely that Geoffrey Lloyd would have been photographed at Graveley before the system had been comprehensibly proven, so 1943 is an unlikely year for the photograph.

The IWM gives the date of the release of this photograph and its associated sequence as being 1945. The likeliest explanation for this is that the war was over and secrecy could be relaxed; however, the photograph had actually been taken the previous year. The release of the photograph appears to have been timed to coincide with Geoffrey Lloyd’s appointment to the post of Minster of Information on 25 May 1945; he succeeded Brendan Bracken, who had held the post with distinction since July 1941.

Another strong reason for assuming that the scene depicted is in 1944, rather than in 1945, is that Bennett resigned his command in early May 1945 and the length of the grass and the full foliage of the trees in the background suggests a later time of year.

There is an IWM picture, clearly taken at the same time, which shows GEOFFREY LLOYD WITH AIRCREW (IWM: CH 15276), at least some of whom are amongst the aircrew sitting on the grass in the main photograph. In the background, by the Lancaster, you can just see Bennett lurking, probably with gritted teeth, willing the hated RAF official photographer to go away.