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RAF PATHFINDERS ARCHIVE

RAF PATHFINDERS ARCHIVE

The Pathfinders & the World they Knew

  • HOME
  • LATEST POSTS
  • ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
    • ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
    • Why the Archive Began
    • Collecting Material for the Archive
    • Donating Digital Material – What you need to know.
    • Charity & Contact Details
    • Copyright & Permissions
    • RESEARCH ENQUIRIES
    • Migrating from Old Website
    • Partners: Pathfinder Collection, RAF Wyton
    • Partners: Queensland Air Museum
  • 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
    • Publicity and 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
    • What’s in a Name? 8 Group or PFF?
  • PFF Squadrons & Bases
    • PFF Squadron Names and Codes
    • PFF Bases
    • Pathfinder Squadrons in 5 Group
  • Leadership
    • Don Bennett, Air Officer Commanding
    • Bennett, PR and 5 Group
    • Bennett and the Tirpitz
    • 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
  • 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
  • FEATURED 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
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  • Category: WAR BACKGROUND

    The background to the RAF, Bomber Command and the Pathfinders’ war

  • Remembrance on Texel, Xmas Eve

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on December 25, 2022December 25, 2022

    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 …

    97 Squadron, Occupied Countries, RAF Losses & Memorials
  • 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
  • Remembrance Sunday

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on November 13, 2022November 13, 2022

    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 …

    405 Squadron, Occupied Countries, RAF Losses & Memorials
  • The Danish Shoulder Flash

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on October 24, 2022

    The Library on this website has a new article, by Mikkel Planthinn, about the Danish Shoulder Flash, worn on the RAF uniform to indicate that the wearer was from the Allied country of Denmark. Denmark …

    Occupied Countries, Uniforms, tags and ensignia
  • Met Flight Shooting-Down

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on May 28, 2022May 29, 2022

    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 …

    1409 Met Flight (M), Occupied Countries
  • Crash site of Kenneth Brown crew

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on February 23, 2022April 5, 2022

    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, …

    97 Squadron, Casualty Branch, MRES, Burials, Germany
  • 635 Squadron – End of War Photograph

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on February 20, 2022

    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 …

    635 Squadron, War's End - final weeks
  • Winston Johnson, navigator, Special Duties

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on February 20, 2022February 23, 2022

    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 …

    109 Sqd (M), Intelligence & Counter-Measures, Occupied Countries
  • Post-War View of Bomber Command

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on February 19, 2022November 13, 2022

    Although the bombing campaign had received very positive publicity during the war, post-war the tide of public opinion began to turn against the campaign. By extension, this would come to mean that the aircrew themselves. …

    Publicity and PR, War's Over - what came next
  • The Loss of the Robertson Crew

    Posted by RAF Pathfinders Archive on January 29, 2022February 23, 2022

    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 …

    97 Squadron, Casualty Branch, MRES, Burials, Dominion & Colonial Airmen, Germany
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