582 Squadron, heavy bombers
New article by Sean Feast. On 23 February 1945, Ted Swales took his final flight as Master Bomber for a raid on Pforzheim. What happened on that flight became the stuff of legend after Swales lost his life in making sure that all his crew were safe. Within 24 hours […]
As the end of the war had approached, Bomber Command Lancasters had begun flying to Brussels and other liberated European airfields to collect freed prisoners of war. American aircraft of the USAAF also brought back ex-prisoners. After the German surrender, German airfields could also be used in what was known […]
On 16 December 1944, German Panzers spearheaded a surprise attack in the Ardennes that smashed through thinly held Allied lines, catching the Allied commanders completely off-guard. Men from 1st SS Panzer Division in a Schwimmwagen at Kaiserbaracke crossroads, between St. Vith and Malmedy, 18 December 1944 © IWM EA 47958 […]
Dudley 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. […]
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 civil war which tore Lebanon apart. Hal was flying Boeing […]
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. Today we feature just one of those lost Pathfinders, Flying […]
Donald Sinclair Margach was a bomb aimer from Edinburgh, who died in July 1944 when serving with 582 Squadron of the Pathfinders. Like many Pathfinders, he had had a very interesting flying career prior to joining the PFF.
The three Victoria Crosses awarded to Pathfinders were all gazetted in 1945, some time after the deaths of the recipients. The three men who performed extraordinary feats of heroism and self-sacrifice were Ian Willoughby Bazalgette, Robert Anthony Maurice Palmer, and Edwin Swales. Read the Full Article: The Three Pathfinder Victoria […]