The Royal Air Force and the Dominion Air Forces
For Remembrance Day every year we choose one airman or airwoman to stand for all the Pathfinders who lost their lives in the war. This year it is Taffy Jones who was killed when he was a prisoner of war. James Ellis Jones, known to his friends as Taffy because […]
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 […]
A very fine monument to the Rickinson crew was recently unveiled at Eemnes, a small village in the centre of the Netherlands. The Rickinson crew of 83 Squadron, stationed at RAF Wyton, were lost on the Duisburg operation of 12/13 May 1943. The crew were: Pilot: F/Lt Leslie Arthur Rickinson, […]
The close involvement of the Pathfinders in the radar war waged by the Allies is symbolised by the service of two USAAF airmen – 2nd Lieutenant J.E. Russell (Jack) and 2nd Lieutenant R. Wright (Dick) – with 97 Squadron in the summer of 1943. The Americans were at the squadron […]
Every year on Christmas Eve, a most touching ceremony takes place on Texel, at the War Cemetery at Den Burg. This year the annual lighting of the candles for each of the 167 graves took place despite somewhat blustery weather, and the results after darkness had fallen were spectacular. Sea […]
We are very pleased to publish the first-hand account by Harry Furner, a mid-upper gunner with the Marsden crew, 35 Squadron, of the attack on his Lancaster by an enemy aircraft in June 1944. It is an amazing story of survival against the odds. A fellow member of 35 Squadron, […]
We had an email recently, from Richard Curtis in Kitchener, Ontario, asking why Wing Commander Charles Gray was on the last flight of the Townsend crew, 405 Squadron. For details of the deaths of this crew on 29 July 1944, see our page: REMEMBERING DEREK. Only one body was ever […]
80TH ANNVERSARY. On 23 June 1943, a Lancaster of 97 Squadron crashed on the Dutch city of Utrecht. The Lancaster broke up while on fire in the air, and five Dutch civilians were killed when huge chunks of flaming debris fell on their houses and set them alight. Five of […]
80 years ago, on the operation against Krefeld of 20/21 June 1943, 35 Squadron had a disastrous night, losing four crews in mainland Europe and one at sea. A sixth crew, that of Sergeant Milne, ditched 30 miles off Cromer on the Norfolk coast, and all were incredibly fortunate to […]
Following on from our recent feature on Christmas 1944 in a POW Camp, here is the Archive’s farewell to 2022 and welcome to 2023, with another item from Albert East’s time in Stalag IVb: New Year’s Eve, Stalag IVb, 1944/45. From the Archive’s collection of Albert East’s papers and memorabilia, […]
Jan Nieuwenhuis sent the following message late yesterday: “Today late this afternoon, we again placed candle lights in front of all the war graves at the Texel War Cemetery…” With grateful thanks to Jan Nieuwenhuis and all who have helped in this year’s remembrance. Jennie Mack Gray writes: I have […]
See our new Feature Page: Christmas 1944 in a POW Camp To all our supporters and to everyone who has kindly donated information, documents, photographs and artefacts related to the Pathfinders this year, we wish you A Very Happy Christmas and New Year
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. […]
Up until at least the end of 1943, carrier pigeons were carried on all operational bomber aircraft (and also on Coastal Command long-range sorties) as a back-up system in addition to a wireless SOS when an aircraft was either abandoned in flight or had to be ditched. Every Bomber Station had an […]
Photograph, possibly taken in November 1942, of a Remembrance ceremony at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Great Gransden, Cambridgeshire. The lych gate in the picture is still there today. The central figure is the exiled King Peter of Yugoslavia, in RAF uniform, with his mother Queen Marie standing beside him. The Yugoslavian […]