A question which comes up perennially about the Pathfinders is why some of them were flying with 5 Group as opposed to 8 Group (as the Pathfinders had become in early 1943) and why they …
Category: 83 Squadron
83 Squadron, heavy bombers
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PFF Squadrons in 5 Group
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Robert Murray Buchan, Navigation Staff Officer
In the earliest days of the Pathfinders, the PFF had a Staff Officer contingent of only five, of whom William Anderson was one. Another was Robert Murray Buchan, the Navigation Staff Officer. Sadly, Buchan went missing on …
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RNZAF Boys on Ship to Canada
An unusual photograph of trainee aircrew leaving their homeland: RNZAF Boys on Ship to Canada
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Searby & the End of a Kiwi Gunner’s Tour
John Searby (left, with Bennett in 1944, IWM: CH 20628) was one of the best known and most revered of the Pathfinder squadron and station commanders. According to the dates in Bennett’s book Pathfinder, he …
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The RAF and the Channel Dash
On 11 February 1942, the prestigious German battleships the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau and the Prinz Eugen broke out of the westerly French port of Brest and sailed east, up the English Channel, in a break for …