Bomber Command Navigation Chart and Log

Have you ever wondered what charts and logs that a WW2-era RAF Navigator carried with him? Navigating to a target involves precise calculations – based on wind speeds, direction, and known position of the celestial objects. Sometimes aided by radio aids, the navigator has to chart out a track for his pilot to follow.

A war time navigation log survives in the appendix for No. 214 Squadron RAF dating from August 1943:

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To accompany the navigation log, the Navigator also draws track on a 1:2000000 chart that covers lower England and Western Europe. A blank surviving chart can be found at the link here : http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A81937

The same chart is shown below with the Navigator drawn plot to the target and back.

Another example of a more detailed chart showing a track from Southern England to Paris, that swings behind London – this way the bombers avoid the hostile skies over the canal, this is just about a month after D-Day when Allied troops are already on the french beaches.

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Of course the above charts were photographed in B/W copies. Somewhere colour originals must exist for reference to the Bomber Command specialists.

Reference:

214 Squadron Appendices – https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2503965#imageViewerLink