Pathfinder Squadrons - more dangerous to serve in than Bomber Command??

[potty555]

Hi all, doing some research on a air gunner on the Nantwich War Memorial (Flight Sgt. Joseph Wheeler - No.83 Squadron, died July 25, 1944). After serving in No.106 Squadron, he was transferred to No.83 (Pathfinder) Squadron. It was said that this promotion reduced his chances in surviving because of his extra ops (45 compared to 30) to complete his tour of duty. Are there any other reasons why serving in a Pathfinder Squadron was deemed more dangerous than others in Bomber Command?? Thanks for reading, Mark.

[ianh]

Some of them would be at the head of the bomber stream en route so wouldn’t have the protection of Window that later a/c might have benefited from?

[malcolm_raf]

Hi

Bear in mind however, that the most 'dangerous' squadron to be in was actually No 101 Sqn in No 1 Group, they suffered the highest losses of any Bomber Command unit, due to the fact that they monitored the Luftwaffe GCI controllers and then transmitted jamming signals on those same frequencies, so the night fighters could home in on them.

No 8 Group initially operated the bulk of the H2S sets, so again these could be homed in on by the night fighters.

Malcolm

[JDCAVE]

Acknowledging Malcolm’s response. I was unaware of that—thanks Malcolm.

Absolutely, having to complete 50% more ops would translate into lower survival to the end of tour. Also, depending on their duty, pathfinders were required to spend more time over the target area. I’m not an expert on the specifics of pathfinder activities, but I believe orbits over the target were required. These actions would expose PF crews to defences over the target for a longer period.

The night raid reports provide the necessary data to evaluate comparisons in survival rates between Main Force and pathfinder crews. Make sure you normalize the data by looking at rate-of-loss, by operation rather than absolute losses. The analysis of choice would be “analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Edit: I’ll bet there is an Bomber Command Operations Research document that looks into this very question.

Jim

[Greg Bloomfield]

Malcolm

I wasn't aware that 101 Squadron's signals could be homed in on by night fighters. What piece of kit did they use for that?

[malcolm_raf]

Malcolm

I wasn't aware that 101 Squadron's signals could be homed in on by night fighters. What piece of kit did they use for that?

Hi Greg

I'm not sure of the precise name of the device, but as 'Airborne Cigar' (ABC) was jamming the GCI frequencies, it wouldn't have needed to be too sophisticated.

Malcolm