The background to the RAF, Bomber Command and the Pathfinders’ war
Every year at this time we remember the Pathfinder crews lost due to fog and low cloud on Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943. The Pathfinder dead for fog-related crashes were two from 83 Squadron, six from 156 Squadron, fourteen from 405 Squadron, and twenty-eight from 97 Squadron, fifty men in all. The survivors of these crashes were sometimes critically injured, […]
The Battle of Berlin commenced on the night of 18/19 November 1943. It was thought by Sir Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command, to have got off to a promising start, but the appalling dangers of the flights, over strongly defended enemy territory and across seas patrolled by German fighters, combined […]
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the raid on the development site for Hitler’s rocket programme. The raid on Peenemunde on the night of 17/18 August 1943 was remarkable for many reasons, not least the incredible skill and bravery shown by the men of the Path Finder Force led, for the […]
VE Day on 8 May 1945 was celebrated with huge enthusiasm at the Path Finder Force. We are marking the 80th Anniversary with several new features on the victory. Today the following pages cover how the Air Officer Commanding, Donald Bennett, made the announcement to the Pathfinders, and how victory […]
It is very good news to hear that the memorial to the Coates crew has already been adopted by the local school in Weebosch village. Every 25th March, on the anniversary of the crash, the children will clean the memorial and lay flowers of remembrance for the crew. Ad van […]
This morning we are publishing a set of three photographs of the lighting of the candles for all the war graves in Den Berg, Texel, on Christmas Eve. They were sent to us by Jan Nieuwenhuis, who together with Bram van Dijk (very sadly, no longer with us) began this […]
NEWS FLASH: Today, 16 December, there was supposed to be a dedication ceremony at RAF Wyton for the new memorial to Black Thursday, but unfortunately it had to be cancelled on the authority of the Station Commander. A different date will be arranged in the New Year. Every year at […]
Leo Janssen writes: Boxmeer is located in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands, in the upper south-east of the country. Our group researching airplane crashes and emergency landings in the Second World War in the region around Boxmeer began some 10 years ago. Before that time many individual researchers were […]
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, […]
Today sees the publication of a new article which contains a fascinating conjunction of two accounts, one from the British viewpoint, one from the German viewpoint, of the shooting down of a Mosquito of 109 Squadron on 14 January 1944, eighty years ago. Mosquitos were difficult aircraft to shoot down, […]
This 97 Squadron crew flew on 16/17 December 1943 (BLACK THURSDAY) in Lancaster OF-S, S-Sugar. Unable to land due to the fog, the crew abandoned the aircraft and parachuted to safety. The crew’s survival on that disastrous night was a piece of great good fortune. Sadly, they were all killed […]
It has now been confirmed that the Black Thursday memorial stone will be put in place at RAF Wyton on a permanent basis. John Clifford, one of our trustees and senior curator at the Pathfinder Collection, Heritage Centre, RAF Wyton, wrote to me yesterday: We await the construction of a […]
Every year at this time we remember the Pathfinder crews lost due to fog and low cloud on Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943. The Pathfinder dead for fog-related crashes were two from 83 Squadron, six from 156 Squadron, fourteen from 405 Squadron, and twenty-eight from 97 Squadron, fifty men in all. Memorial stone for the heavy losses suffered by 97 […]
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 […]
The Path Finder Force was a small but vital facet of Bomber Command. Created in August 1942 to improve bombing accuracy, it led the other squadrons of Bomber Command, collectively known as Main Force, by marking the routes and bombing targets. So vital was the Pathfinders’ job that on 1 […]