FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0024.PDF
FLIGHT JANUARY 4TH, 1945 The P.F.F. Pathfinding, the Highest Standard of Operational Flying in the World By C. B. BAILEY-WATSON IT is rather extraordinary that the significance of theletters P.F.F. is not known more widely, even inBomber Command—the people most affected. In fact, there are all sorts of queer ideas held by the actual bomber crews about the Path Finder Force. The title of " Force " is given to this component of the Royal Air Force because it is representative of Bomber Command as a whole, that 13, the Pathfinder crews are recruited from Bomber Com- mand and the P.F.F. serves Bomber Command. The story behind the Pathfinders is a most interesting one ; it is also a story which epitomises the British way of doing things. Taking an ordered survey of events from the outbreak of war brings to light the perilous position which faced this country in those early days between 1939 and 1942. The epic of the Battle of Britain is inclined to overshadow the precariousness of the position which obtained well after the halcyon reign of the Few. And there must be millions of people, literally millions, who lived in a mirage of security en- gendered by the magnificent vic- tories won over Kentish weald and Sussex down. It was probably as well. During 1940 we attacked enemy targets with bombs. We also dropped leaflets (and let no one decry the power of this weapon ; it is a most important factor). How- ever, to maintain the standard of battle chivalry, the metal bars of the leaflet packs, which normally dropped with the leaflets, were ordered to be wired-up so that they were retained in the aircraft and therefore could not do damage to the enemy, his person nor bis possessions. This is not really relevant to the subject of this article, but it does indicate the way we were carry- ing-x>n our side of the war at that period. The bombing raids which were made early on were carried out with ill- equipped, poorly-armed and stolid aircraft by comparison with to-day's standards, but the spirit of the crews was incredibly high; they were absolutely magnificent in their eagerness for the job. However, it is a fact that at the start there was but one Group (equipped with Whitleys) in Bomber Command which was trained for night opera- tion. AH the remaining Groups had to be converted by night training, a training in which night navigation played a very large part. Early Work Time went on and the bombing of the enemy was in- creased, but despite seemingly good bombing reports it was ascertained that the average of hits on the target was, on the whole, very, poor indeed. The crews concerned seemed unable to believe this, but photographs proved it and there seemed little that could be done. A planned raid was at that time unknown. Attacks were laid on by individual Groups, and the routes to be taken *vere governed largely by the particular location of the Group. The s+andard of navigation was nothing like it is to-day, the chief area of difficulty being the most important, viz., the last 20 or 30 miles to the target. For some reason the crews-seemed to be able to get that far with relative case. The coveted Eagle/Albatross gilt emblem whichdistinguishes the qualified Pathfinder. but the last twenty-odd miles more often than not foxed them, so that comparatively few of the raiding aircraft actually attacked the target. At this period the bomber force had not many clues, as the "Boffins" (this is their name for the popularly called " back-room-boys") had not yet started actually delivering much of the incredible equipment which they had devised. Equipment such as the "Gen-box," the story of which startled the world only recently. During the latter part of 1941 the pursuit of real accuracy can be said to have started, but the efforts were not really co-ordinated, and so the planned raids were, at first, rather isolated instances. One of the first of these was on Hiils, about 11 miles W.S.W. of Duisburg, in Decem- ber, 1941. The next was that famous raid on the Renault works in Paris on the night of March 3rd, 1942, which resulted in the complete stoppage of the factory's production for 3^ months. This, incidentally, was confirmed by a recently captured production report on the Renault output. Results of Planning As a result of planning, these raids were conducted from A to i on a complete schedule, and the dividend returned was a marked increase in bomb strike efficiency. Then came the historic 1,000- bomber raid on Cologne on May 31st, 1942. The total tonnage lifted was no less than 1,700, a phenomenal figure for that time, and of the whole tonnage dropped the percentage which fell on the target gave an increase in bombing efficiency which paralleled the size f of the raid. However, these highly organ- ised raids were still excep- tions rather than the rule. Everyone knows that, a great part of the country's production was being put into bombers. The Manchester (to be followed almost at cnce by the Lancaster), the Halifax and Stirling were coming off the production lines, but the U-boat menace was at its height and it could defeat us. It had to be reduced at all costs. The proposal was mooted that a large propor- tion of Bomber Command should be transferred to Coastal Command. Fortunately this measure proved to be unnecessary. The reason for the poor showing of our bombing effort was realised: it had no concerted leadership; all the air- craft operating on a raid were independent, and planned forays were not the normal thing. To provide the required leadership, the Path Finder Force was born on August 15th, 1942. The best squadrons in Bomber Command were combed for their best crews—the absolute cream of the British bombing force—and these men were given the opportunity of volunteering for the P.F.F. A leader for the force was required, and he had to be the right one ; the choice was Air Comdre (now Air Vice- Marshal) D. C. T. Bennett, C.B.E., D.S.O., a most obvious choice, for it is said of him that he knows the job of every man under his command better than the man himself, and he has written some of the most authoritative textbooks on navigation. (A short biography of A.V-M. Bennett
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
