Bestselling author Will Iredale discusses the essential work of the aircrews who spearheaded Bomber Command raids
Bestselling author Will Iredale reveals how RAF Bomber Command combined courage and innovative technology to greatly increase its bombing accuracy over occupied Europe
At the height of WWII, a crack team of men and women in RAF Bomber Command transformed the aerial bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. Known as the Pathfinders, these innovative air personnel saved Bomber Command from disintegration and turned it into a formidable force that razed German cities with devastating accuracy. Using the latest technologies, the Pathfinders rattled senior Nazi commanders and helped pave the way for Allied victory in Western Europe.
This remarkable story is the subject of
Will Iredale’s new book The Pathfinders. The bestselling author of The Kamikaze Hunters,
Iredale uncovers the Pathfinders’ origins, multinational personnel and even their impact on D-day.
By 1941 it was clear Bomber Command could not accurately find or bomb targets over Nazioccupied Europe at night. Winston Churchill’s scientific adviser Professor Lindemann decided to investigate why. Over 650 photographs taken by night bombers were examined and the results were dynamite. Just one in five
RAF bombers sent on operations to Germany and France got within 8km of their target. On moonless nights this proportion fell to one in fifteen. Something needed to be done, and fast. The response was the Pathfinders – a secret air force of 20,000 young men and women. They took Bomber Command from the brink of extinction in 1942 and transformed it into a weapon capable of razing whole cities to the ground in a single night or hitting targets just a few hundred feet wide.
Pathfinder aircraft flew ahead of the main force of bombers, locating the target before dropping flares so the rest of the bomber stream following behind knew where to aim. Central to their success was pioneering technology created by a team of British boffins. The most accurate was a device called ‘Oboe’, which used radio pulses to help guide aircraft to the target. However, Oboe only had a range of around 435km, so the Pathfinders also used ‘H2S’ – an airborne radar which scanned the ground. The returning echoes created a shadowy map of the terrain that appeared on a cathode-ray tube housed in a set in the fuselage. This meant a navigator could theoretically identify his aircraft’s location. Pathfinders then dropped ‘target indicators’ – brightly coloured flares made with the help of the British fireworks industry. A contract with one fireworks company alone was worth over £600,000 – the equivalent to £28 million today.
After a slow start, the Pathfinders soon made an impact. In the months prior to their first real examination in the Battle of the Ruhr in 1943, one in ten aircraft sent by Bomber Command
WHY WAS THE INITIAL PATHFINDER FORCE FOUNDED IN 1942?
WHAT TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES DID THE PATHFINDERS USE?
HOW SUCCESSFUL WERE THE PATHFINDERS?
to the Ruhr got within 5km of their target.
Led by the Pathfinders, this figure rose to 73 percent in the Ruhr campaign during the spring and summer of 1943. The cost was bloody
– at least 774 Pathfinder airmen lost their lives between March and July 1943. However, some of the most important targets, which had been attacked many times in the past with little effect, were now being located and pounded with ruthless efficiency. By 1945, 95 percent of the aircraft despatched by Bomber Command on German cities bombed within 5km of the aiming point.
WHAT WERE THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THOSE WHO SERVED IN THIS UNIT?
Like the rest of Bomber Command, the Pathfinders were an eclectic mix in background and origin. Coal miners rubbed shoulders with school teachers, accountants with farm labourers. More than half of the airmen came from Commonwealth countries, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. Others hailed from America, Norway, and Hong Kong. However, what often marked them out from the main force was their experience. Many had served one or even two tours – united in spirit by a ‘press on’ attitude – before being picked for the elite role. While their losses were actually fractionally below main force crews, the most experienced Pathfinders became master bombers. They monitored the whole operation from above and instructed other crews where to aim their bombs. To be a master bomber was one of the most dangerous aerial combat jobs of WWII.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO INTERVIEW SURVIVING VETERANS FOR YOUR BOOK?
It’s always special to speak to someone who was directly involved with something as historically significant as Britain’s bombing war over Nazi-occupied Europe. What makes this even more precious is that all these veterans are now in their mid-90s or older. For some, this is the first time they have spoken in detail about their experience. For all, it will most probably be the last.
However, this shouldn’t mean first-hand accounts are taken as read. As the decades pass time can fray the sharp edges of memory, and it’s always important to bear that in mind. That’s why I was keen to also dig into archives for letters and diaries written at the time. Sometimes a contemporaneous account from a teenager or person in their early 20s can take on a very different texture to recollections from a veteran years later.
TO WHAT EXTENT DID THE PATHFINDERS’ EFFORTS DETERMINE THE COURSE OF THE WAR FOR THE WESTERN ALLIES?
While Arthur Harris’s dream of wrecking Berlin was always beyond his reach, his ability to wield a vast bomber force to crush towns and cities closer to Britain became almost routine. Through better navigation and target marking, hundreds more planes were squeezed into bomber streams, passing over a target in less time, overwhelming defences, reducing bomber losses and wreaking havoc. This success was as much about the efficiency of the bombing as the accuracy of the bombs. The number of tons of bombs dropped over the target per square mile increased five-fold between 1943-44. This forced Hitler to move equipment and manpower away from the fighting fronts to tackle the bombing threat.
The efforts of the Pathfinders certainly bore fruit for the D-day landings. Its aircraft played a vital role smashing the coastal batteries behind the landing beaches hours before troops stormed ashore. While they never completely conquered the elements to deliver foolproof accuracy for Bomber Command, the transformation in its bombing capabilities was remarkable. There was no one means of winning the war, but the Pathfinders’ contribution to the air offensive ensured that Bomber Command – alongside the American air force – played a significant role in the eventual Allied victory.
“LIKE THE REST OF BOMBER COMMAND, THE PATHFINDERS WERE AN ECLECTIC MIX IN BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN”