Bomber Command Historians: This is my focus. What is yours?

[JDCAVE]

My focus for this thread is to determine if we have common interests, goals, outcomes.

I'll start. As many of you know my focus is on my father's Operational History with 419 Squadron. I am interested in the strategy, tactics, planning, routes, flight plans, meteorology, navigator charts and logs, enemy response, combats, pathfinder tactics, 100-Group special operations, strike photos, notable characters (and their photos), losses and so forth. To summarize, I am interested in everything that has a bearing on each of dad's operations. The who, what, where, when and how. Eventually, I want to be able to show the progress of each operation, on web-based mapping software, where overlays can be toggled on and off, systematically adding detail, displaying spatial and temporal content. I would also like to have each operation animated in some way for presentation purposes.

Up until now, I have been collecting the primary historical source material for dad's operations. I have much of what is available, only now finishing up with obtaining the 100-Group material. I hope to have this for dad's operations for September 1944-February 1945. I already have the 100-Group material for March 1945, and it would be an understatement to say that it is fascinating to review.

So, I have nearly all the "content". I have detailed "essays" on all of dad's operations. My next goal is to do the Mapping and Web Based work. I'm going to have to engage "serious experts" to make that happen. I have a vision of what I want to portray, but absolutely no ability to take it to the next phase.

Is this of interest to anyone out there? Is there a common purpose? If so, I would proceed with developing this to allow others to upload similar content.

PS: I found this animation by the "One Night in December" group for the 5-Group operation to Munich, December 18, 1944, to be very interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LyUUp6IiKA

Jim

[PNK]

My focus is on the use of bombing and gunnery ranges in the UK. This is an area often glossed over and looking at some of the log books and ORBs it was something that took up a lot of non-operational flying hours. As there were over 500 ranges used by the RAF, FAA and USAAF plus MoS/MAP, getting details of each one is not easy, especially those that appeared early in the war and disappeared before any aerial photos were taken to confirm their existence. However it is fun looking for new information and there always seems to be a "new" range to be discovered, many lasting less than a year.