A.P.Rowe and his Sunday Soviets - Pathfinder Squadrons

The accuracy of bombing achieved by the RAF during 1940 and 1941 was considered totally unacceptable. There had been a terrible loss of men and machines and very few successes. Professor Lindemann had produced a report (the Butt report) in August 1941, which estimated that less than 10% of the bombs dropped were reaching their targets. Some 31,500 tons of bombs had been dropped in the first six months of 1941.

The raid on Berlin by 169 bombers on 7th November 1941 proved a total failure and the raids in the spring of 1942 on Germany's industrial centers proved equally ineffectual. However, in November 1941 Group Captain S.O. Bufton was appointed Deputy Director of bombing operations. He was an experienced officer and he suggested that what was required was a specific Target Finding Force. The Commander in Chief was Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris and he vehemently opposed any suggestion of setting up an 'elite' force within the RAF. He advocated that each Group should develop its own specialist squadrons. In August 1942, Air Marshal Portal overruled Harris and then Group Captain D. Bennett, a young Australian, was appointed to command the new TFF, which comprised just 4 squadrons and was renamed as the Pathfinder Force.		Crest
The first raid using the new force was on 18th August 1942 but it was not a success. This was due to the rudimentary navigational aids installed in most bombers at that time and to the limited training the crew had received. Group Captain Bennett lost no time in ensuring that his new force was properly equipped, firstly with GEE which had been used operationally since the massive Cologne raid of 30th May 1942. The next system to be commissioned was OBOE (from 21st December 1942) and finally in early 1943, H2S was introduced. The first Mosquito mission equipped with Oboe flew from RAF Wyton on 20th December 1942 and the first H2S Pathfinder mission was a raid on Hamburg on 30th January 1943..
The mosquitoes were particularly suited to this type of work because they could fly fast and low and then accurately drop flares onto the targets for the following bomber squadrons. The bombing accuracy improved 7-fold once the new squadrons were fully trained during 1943. By 1945 No 8 Group had grown to 19 squadrons, II with Mosquitoes and 8 with Lancasters.		Mosquitoes of 139 (Pathfinder) Squadron at dispersal 1943