Brock Robertson won his Distinguished Flying Cross for an operation to Hamburg on 24/25 July 1943, just over a month before his death. What the official citation for the award deliberately omitted to say was that Brock’s aircraft had been… Read More ›
PFF AIRCREW
Individual Pathfinder aircrew and their squadrons
Brock Robertson & His Crew
Oliver Brock Robertson was an outstanding Canadian pilot who flew with 97 Squadron. He won the Distinguished Flying Cross in unusual circumstances in July 1943, just over a month before his death in action. There is an interesting family background,… Read More ›
Crash site of Kenneth Brown crew
Following on from the interesting and detailed German eyewitness reports of The Loss of the Robertson Crew, published at the end of January 2022, we have more German eyewitness reports of another 97 Squadron crew, lost in the same month… Read More ›
635 Squadron – End of War Photograph
Further to our post yesterday about Frederick Jones, a pilot with 635 Squadron, and his earlier time in training (see Frederick Jones, 635 Squadron, & Heaton Park) we have now located the end of war photograph from which his image… Read More ›
Winston Johnson, navigator, Special Duties
Winston Johnson’s wartime service was as a navigator/specialist wireless operator. He was involved in top-secret work, some of it with 109 Squadron, a founding Mosquito squadron of the Pathfinders. On 31 January 1945, Winston was posted overseas to the BLA,… Read More ›
Frederick Jones, 635 Squadron, & Heaton Park
Jonah Jones, centre, second row up. Thought to be from the end of war photograph for 635 Squadron. Frederick S “Jonah” Jones, a pilot of 635 Squadron, wrote a poem when he was in training in 1942 at Heaton Park…. Read More ›
The Loss of the Robertson Crew
We have just added some interesting and unusually detailed German eyewitness reports of the loss of the Robertson crew after the Nuremburg raid of 27/28 August 1943. Lancaster JA958K crashed at Bubenreuth, near Erlangen, around 16 miles (25.5 kilometres) north… Read More ›
“AN AUSTRALIAN PATHFINDER OVER GERMANY”
Today we are adding to the Library an article by Tim Willasey-Wilsey, Visiting Professor of War Studies at King’s College London. It concerns Hall Mettam, a member of the RAAF, whom Tim met in Beirut in 1974 just before the… Read More ›
HAPPY XMAS and Best Wishes for 2022
Menu card for the Sergeants’ Mess at RAF Station Graveley, on Christmas Day 1944, when Victory was just beginning to look certain. With our our very best wishes to all our readers and supporters THE RAF PATHFINDERS ARCHIVE team From… Read More ›
Geoff Baker, RAAF, 97 Squadron.
A further addition to the library today … A personal account by Stan Hurd of a friend, Geoff Baker, “an ordinary person who went to war that changed his life. It tells the story of his experiences flying a Lancaster… Read More ›
Mark Gleed, 139 Squadron
A new article by Len Gleed about Mark Gleed, a Mosquito navigator, and his service with 139 Squadron, is the second article in our collection of articles which have been written by relatives or members of the public. The list… Read More ›
Remembrance Sunday
The total wartime losses for the Path Finder Force were given by their commander, Donald Bennett, as being 3,618 men.[1] It was a large figure for a small Force which only came into existence in the fourth year of the war…. Read More ›
Remembrance Day, 2021
Remembering all the Pathfinders lost in the war, and those who survived but suffered from terrible memories in after years, and all their friends and families. ONE OF THE MANY PATHFINDER CREWS LOST After three and a half months of… Read More ›
Remembering Derek
Sometimes it is the smallest items which tell the most. A few old newspaper cuttings, preserved for many years, reveal how greatly Derek Charles Carrott, of the Townsend crew of 405 Squadron, was missed by his family. He was the… Read More ›
The Moore Crew
The Moore crew were all killed when their aircraft crashed at Gelsenkirchen in June 1943. James Parker McMillin was 97 Squadron’s Navigation Officer, and he had only stepped into the navigator role when the usual crewmember could not fly. Like… Read More ›