On 9 May 1943, a 1409 Squadron Met Flight crew were shot down over Holland. This was a rare occurrence as normally Mosquitos flew too high and too fast to be intercepted. Both crewmembers, Peter Hall and William Woodruff, survived… Read More ›
WAR BACKGROUND
The background to the RAF, Bomber Command and the Pathfinders’ war
Crash site of Kenneth Brown crew
Following on from the interesting and detailed German eyewitness reports of The Loss of the Robertson Crew, published at the end of January 2022, we have more German eyewitness reports of another 97 Squadron crew, lost in the same month… Read More ›
635 Squadron – End of War Photograph
Further to our post yesterday about Frederick Jones, a pilot with 635 Squadron, and his earlier time in training (see Frederick Jones, 635 Squadron, & Heaton Park) we have now located the end of war photograph from which his image… Read More ›
Winston Johnson, navigator, Special Duties
Winston Johnson’s wartime service was as a navigator/specialist wireless operator. He was involved in top-secret work, some of it with 109 Squadron, a founding Mosquito squadron of the Pathfinders. On 31 January 1945, Winston was posted overseas to the BLA,… Read More ›
The Loss of the Robertson Crew
We have just added some interesting and unusually detailed German eyewitness reports of the loss of the Robertson crew after the Nuremburg raid of 27/28 August 1943. Lancaster JA958K crashed at Bubenreuth, near Erlangen, around 16 miles (25.5 kilometres) north… Read More ›
Remembrance: 16/17 December 1943, Black Thursday
On Thursday and Friday this week we remember the 50 Pathfinder aircrew who were killed in crashes in England on Thursday and Friday 78 years ago. The crews had just returned safely from that night’s operation to Berlin when a… Read More ›
A German Bomber Crew
Dr Olav Heinemann’s article “A Chance Encounter” contains a last section which mentions his grandfather Kurt Heinemann who was a navigator on a Luftwaffe bomber. We very much like the closing paragraph of the article: “While it appeared to me… Read More ›
“A Chance Encounter” – The Loss of the Moore Crew
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… Read More ›
Peenemunde Raid, 17/18 August 1943
Coming up to the anniversary of the famous raid on Hitler’s V1 weapon site, we started thinking about what we have in the Archive which is related to this night. It was not difficult to come up with three items,… Read More ›
Wound Stripes
Another item about uniform ensignia which has been transferred from the old site.
Pathfinder Aircrew
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… Read More ›
Wartime Opposition to Bombing
During the war, public opinion in Britain and the Dominions was firmly on the side of Bomber Command. However, there was also some determined criticism of Bomber Command’s campaigns, not least by George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, who argued the… Read More ›
RAF Bombers Deliver More than Bombs …
Bomber aircraft did not just drop bombs, they also dropped counter-propaganda such as the miniature Dutch newspaper De Wervelwind:
Der Feind, The Fiend
This public information poster was printed in Berlin in 1940. The designer was Sander-Herwig. (Information from The Wolfsonian Digital Catalog, Accession number: XX1990.2765) Note the RAF roundel on the wing of the aircraft, and the bomb in the skeleton’s hand…. Read More ›
16/17 December 1943: Remembering the Thackway Crew
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… Read More ›