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RAF PATHFINDERS ARCHIVE

RAF PATHFINDERS ARCHIVE

The Pathfinders & the World they Knew

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  • ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
    • ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
    • Why the Archive Began
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    • Donating Digital Material – What you need to know.
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    • Partners: Pathfinder Collection, RAF Wyton
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  • About the Pathfinders
    • The PFF – A Quick Overview
    • PFF – Unique Conditions of Service
    • The Pathfinder Eagle
    • PATHFINDER AIRCREW: Courage, Love and Loss in Bomber Command’s Elite Force
    • Publicity and the Pathfinders
    • The Pathfinders – Controversial Beginnings
    • Harris and the Pathfinders
    • Harris Chooses Bennett as PFF AOC
    • PFF Losses in First Month, 1942
    • Early Months of the Path Finder Force
    • What’s in a Name? 8 Group or PFF?
  • PFF Squadrons & Bases
    • PFF Squadron Names and Codes
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    • Pathfinder Squadrons in 5 Group
  • Leadership
    • Don Bennett, Air Officer Commanding
    • Bennett, PR and 5 Group
    • Bennett and the Tirpitz
    • Donald Bennett, IWM Sound Recordings (1986)
    • Hamish Mahaddie, IWM sound recordings (1972 & 1989)
    • Anderson’s Logbook: First PFF Sortie
    • Robert Murray Buchan, Navigation Staff Officer
  • Library
    • Library
    • “A CHANCE ENCOUNTER” by Dr Olav Heinemann, Duisburg-Essen University
    • “AN AUSTRALIAN PATHFINDER OVER GERMANY”, by Professor Tim Willasey-Wilsey, King’s College, London
    • GEOFF BAKER, RAAF Pilot with 97 Squadron, by Stan Hurd
    • MARK GLEED, Navigator with 139 Squadron, by Len Gleed
    • The Loss of the Robertson Crew – German Reports
    • THE DANISH SHOULDER FLASH, by Mikkel Plannthin
  • FEATURED ARTICLES
    • A War Artist and the Pathfinders
    • Carrier Pigeons in the Bomber War
    • Christmas 1944 in a POW Camp
    • New Year’s Eve, Stalag IVb, 1944-45.
    • Lancaster Gunners “Hotting Up”
    • Leslie Barr and P/O Prune
  • The Night of the Fog, 16/17 December 1943 (Black Thursday)
    • The Night of the Fog, 16/17 December 1943 (Black Thursday)
    • Why the Archive Began
    • Pathfinder Losses on 16/17 December 1943
    • 97 Squadron Aircrew Flying on 16/17 December 1943
      • De Wesselow Crew
      • Kirkwood Crew
    • 16/17 December 1943: FIDO & Landing Aids
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  • Category: Harris, Head of Bomber Command

    Sir Arthur Travers Harris, AOC-in-C, Head of Bomber Command from February 1942

  • 80th Anniversary: Harris’s Attitude to the PFF

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on July 16, 2022

    Sir Arthur Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command, had been strongly opposed to the setting up of a separate elite target-marking force, believing this would leave to rivalry and jealousy within the non-Pathfinder squadrons …

    ARCHIVE NEWS, Harris, Head of Bomber Command, History of the PFF
  • 80th Anniversary: Harris Opposition to PFF

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on July 8, 2022July 10, 2022

    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 …

    Harris, Head of Bomber Command, History of the PFF, PFF CHARACTER & HISTORY
  • Harris, Bennett & Flying Boats

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on October 18, 2020July 10, 2022

    At the beginning of the 1930s, long before he was the chief of Bomber Command, Harris served as Commanding Officer of 210 Squadron, based at Pembroke Dock in Wales, which flew flying boats. Bennett, who …

    Donald Bennett, AOC, Harris, Head of Bomber Command, Pre-PFF Service
  • Bomber Harris – Interview 1943

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on May 13, 2018October 12, 2020

    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 Command HQ. In the …

    Harris, Head of Bomber Command, RAF BOMBER COMMAND
  • Bomber Harris and the London Blitz

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on May 12, 2018October 16, 2020

    Here is a priceless story told by Harris about the London Blitz in 1940. The sentry whom he describes surely has a direct lineage from Shakespeare’s clowns. During the Blitz, Harris used to go up …

    Harris, Head of Bomber Command, RAF BOMBER COMMAND
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