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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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    • 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
    • Meteorology and the Pathfinders
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    • What’s in a Name? 8 Group or PFF?
    • Development of 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
  • Squadrons, Bases & Ground crew
    • PFF Squadron Names and Codes
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  • Leadership
    • Don Bennett, Air Officer Commanding
      • Harris, Bennett & Flying Boats
      • Bennett and the Tirpitz
      • Bennett, PR and 5 Group
      • 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
  • FEATURE 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
  • 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
  • Archived Articles
    • Frostbite and Flying Boots
    • Pathfinders in Civvie Street
    • The Dangers of the Weather – Icing
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  • Category: 83 Squadron

    83 Squadron, heavy bombers

  • Remembrance: Black Thursday

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on December 16, 2022December 16, 2022

    This detail from a photograph shows part of the funeral procession for 405 Squadron members, mostly Canadians, who were buried on 22 December 1943 at Cambridge City Cemetery. At the rear are Bill Bessent (nearest …

    156 Squadron, 405 Squadron, 83 Squadron, 97 Squadron, Significant Events: Black Thursday
  • PFF Squadrons in 5 Group

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on September 1, 2022

    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 …

    5 Group, 83 Squadron, 97 Squadron, Donald Bennett, AOC, History of the PFF, PFF CHARACTER & HISTORY
  • Robert Murray Buchan, Navigation Staff Officer

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on August 30, 2022

    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 …

    83 Squadron, Air Staff & Leadership
  • RNZAF Boys on Ship to Canada

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on December 9, 2020December 9, 2020

    An unusual photograph of trainee aircrew leaving their homeland: RNZAF Boys on Ship to Canada

    83 Squadron, Dominion & Colonial Airmen, Selection & Training
  • Searby & the End of a Kiwi Gunner’s Tour

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on October 25, 2020June 6, 2021

    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 …

    83 Squadron, Air Staff & Leadership
  • The RAF and the Channel Dash

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on December 28, 2019July 10, 2022

    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 …

    83 Squadron, Germany, Pre-PFF Service
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