Individual Pathfinder aircrew and their squadrons
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 the family archive of Bill ‘Worcester’ Phillips, Bryant crew, 35 […]
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 bomber for Bomber Command during WWll.” Baker was flying with […]
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 of articles can be found on the top menu under […]
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 […]
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 ops at the worst time of the bombing war – […]
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 flight engineer and the only British member of the 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 so many other of these specialist officers, who had already […]
Last summer, when lockdown was in progress in many parts of Europe, Dr Olav Heinemann of the University of Duisburg-Essen came across a stone commemorating an RAF crew in his local churchyard at Gelsenkirchen. His curiosity thoroughly aroused, he researched the story behind the stone and his article “A Chance […]
This book has been 14 years in the making; it contains many personal stories, letters and photographs from the Archive, and has been written by our Chairperson, Jennie Mack Gray. It is on sale in our new Shop from which all profits go to the RAF Pathfinders Archive. We are […]
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 […]
For more details of the display at RAF Wyton Heritage Centre, see this page.
The Archive has its roots in a tragedy which occurred on 16/17 December 1943, afterwards known as Black Thursday. At that time, the crew of Ted Thackway were serving with 97 Squadron, which was stationed at Bourn in Cambridgeshire. The crew’s first operation was to Berlin on 16 December. Returning safely […]
Some Pathfinders had very unusual – and dramatic – pre-Pathfinder war service. Allan Templeton was one of these. HIs service in ASR was very noteworthy. Read the Full Article: Pre-Pathfinder War Service: Allan Templeton
Norman McIntyre, later of 97 Squadron, PFF, at the ceremony which marked the completion of his training as a navigator: RAAF Navigator receives his Wings