Misplaced Pages

#347652

115-531: The Pathfinders were target-marking squadrons in RAF Bomber Command during World War II . They located and marked targets with flares , at which a main bomber force could aim, increasing the accuracy of their bombing. The Pathfinders were normally the first to receive new blind-bombing aids such as Gee , Oboe and the H2S radar . The early Pathfinder Force (PFF) squadrons were expanded to become

230-422: A group and two or more groups will be designated as a wing . USAF squadrons may be flying units composed of pilots and flight crews, with designations such as fighter squadron, bomb squadron, or airlift squadron. Fighter squadrons may support between 18 and 24 aircraft, while larger aircraft flying squadrons (e.g., bomber, cargo, reconnaissance) may support fewer aircraft. However, non-flying units also exist at

345-614: A Mosquito after performing as "master bomber" for a raid on Germany. Three types of target marking were developed by the Pathfinders. These were known by the codenames Parramatta, Wanganui and Newhaven – the names coming from locations in Australia, New Zealand and the UK which had links with Pathfinder staff. If the Oboe system was used to determine the release point then the word "Musical"

460-720: A commanding officer (CO) at the lieutenant colonel level, may not have an equivalent rank executive officer (XO), but are moving more toward the USN model. USMC aviation (Flying) squadron XO's are aeronautically designated officers in the rank of Lt.Col or Major. Also in contrast to USAF flying squadrons, most tactical sea-based and land-based U.S. Naval Aviation squadrons (USN and USMC), vice training squadrons and test and evaluation squadrons, usually do not have more than 12 aircraft authorized/assigned at any one time. Exceptions are USN helicopter mine countermeasures squadrons (17 MH-53), USMC "composite" medium tilt-rotor squadrons assigned afloat as

575-675: A common feature of large raids. The United States Army Air Forces operated a similar force within the Eighth Air Force for ‘blind-bombing’ through overcast on daylight missions using H2X radar -equipped bombers, for which it also used the terms Pathfinder, PFF and master bomber. Although the AOCs of the Groups had been mixed in their enthusiasm for the Pathfinder Force, they generally supported it. AVM Roderic Carr (4 Group)

690-540: A force of 200 bombers was led by accurate marking in Karlsruhe , and the raid was considered a great success, with an estimated 200 fires seen burning. Reconnaissance photographs showed much residential and some industrial damage. A very short report from Karlsruhe says only that 73 people were killed and that three public buildings in the city centre were hit. As the PFF gained experience new problems appeared. Many bombers in

805-480: A force would be a waste of resources. Lindemann's paper was based on the incorrect premise that strategic bombing could cause a breakdown in German morale. Despite this, his arguments were used in support of Bomber Command 's claim for priority in allocation of resources. Lindemann played an important part in the battle of the beams , championing countermeasures against German radio navigation devices to increase

920-509: A ground feature, in this case the shores of Lake Constance. Nearly 10 per cent of the bombs hit the factory in what was considered a great success. A combination of these techniques was first used on a large raid to great success on the night of 17/18 August 1943 in Operation Hydra against German rocket research at Peenemünde . 596 aircraft were led by a Master Bomber to a series of target indicators dropped at several locations around

1035-628: A group, No. 8 (Pathfinder Force) Group , in January 1943. The initial Pathfinder Force was five squadrons, whilst No 8 Group ultimately grew to a strength of 19 squadrons. Whereas the majority of Pathfinder squadrons and personnel were from the Royal Air Force , the group also included No 405 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force as well as many individual airmen from the air forces of other Commonwealth countries. At

1150-477: A large area of Denmark up to 25 miles north of Flensburg were hit by scattered bombing. 26 houses were destroyed and 660 were damaged but only four Danish people were injured. The raid was a dismal failure, much to the delight of both Harris and other detractors of the strategic force as a whole. The PFF's second mission was against Frankfurt on the night of 24/25 August. The group once again had great difficulty identifying its target in cloudy conditions and most of

1265-611: A man as a friend, he never failed him, and there are many of his war-time colleagues who will ever remember him with deep personal affection. He hated Hitler and all his works, and his contribution to Hitler's downfall in all sorts of odd ways was considerable. With power, Lindemann was able to sideline Tizard; especially after Tizard did not acknowledge that the Germans were using radio navigation to bomb Britain. Lindemann has been described as having "an almost pathological hatred for Nazi Germany, and an almost medieval desire for revenge

SECTION 10

#1732780288348

1380-403: A massive bomber force on German cities to break the spirit of the people. His proposal that "bombing must be directed to working class houses. Middle class houses have too much space round them, so are bound to waste bombs" changed accepted conventions of limiting civilian casualties in wartime". His dehousing paper was criticised by many other scientific minds in government service, who felt such

1495-530: A mathematical theory of aircraft spin recovery and later learned to fly so that he could test his ideas himself. Prior to Lindemann's work, a spinning aircraft was almost invariably irrecoverable and the result to the pilot fatal. In 1919, Lindemann was appointed professor of experimental philosophy (physics) at the University of Oxford and director of the Clarendon Laboratory , largely on

1610-562: A poor opinion of the intellect of everyone with the exception of Lord Birkenhead , Mr Churchill and Professor Lindemann; and he had a special contempt for the bureaucrat and all his ways. The Ministry of Supply and the Ordnance Board were two of his pet aversions, and he derived a great deal of pleasure from forestalling them with new inventions. In his appointment as Personal Assistant to the Prime Minister no field of activity

1725-465: A raid by three squadrons of Vickers Wellington against ships in the Heligoland Bight was detected on an experimental Freya radar long before it reached the target area. The British bomber force was met by German fighters that shot down 10 of the 22 bombers, with another two crashing in the sea and three more written off on landing. The Luftwaffe lost only two fighters in return. Although

1840-408: A small circle of the intelligent and the aristocratic should run the world, resulting in a peaceable and stable society, "led by supermen and served by helots." Some sources claim that he was Jewish, but Frederick Smith's official biography declares that he was not. Lindemann supported eugenics , held the working class, homosexuals , and black people in contempt, and supported sterilisation of

1955-517: A small town in the Netherlands. Led entirely by the new Oboe navigation system, several bombs fell within 2 km of the target. The test was considered a success. A follow-up under more realistic conditions was carried out on the night of 31 December 1942/1 January 1943 against Düsseldorf, with two Mosquitos leading a force of eight Lancasters. Only one of the Oboes worked but that was enough for

2070-670: A squadron called an escuadron and a flight called an escuadrilla ), as does the Brazilian Air Force with esquadrão and esquadrilha respectively. The Royal Canadian Air Force and the Belgian Air Component on the other hand use escadrille as the equivalent of a squadron. The Italian Air Force uses gruppo (group) to denominate its squadrons, as does the Chilean Air Force ( grupo de aviación ). The Portuguese Air Force ( esquadra ) and

2185-645: A squadron or group/wing organizational structure. The one exception to this is the Coast Guard's Helicopter Interdiction Squadron (HITRON), which is engaged primarily in counter-narcotics (CN) interdiction operations. In the United States Army Aviation Branch , flying units may be organized in battalions or squadrons (the latter for air cavalry only) reporting to an aviation brigade. Aircraft maintenance activities are typically assigned to an aviation maintenance company or element in

2300-485: A standard of bombing accuracy during the night raids that daylight forces found difficult. The RAF lacked similar navigation systems, having ignored their development for a number of years and relied almost entirely on dead reckoning and optical instruments such as the Course Setting Bomb Sight . In limited visibility or when the target did not have a clearly distinguishing landmark, accurate bombing

2415-470: Is lunacy: it couldn't be done, Mr. Lubbock" and that at the end of the war, the committee would find that the rocket was "a mare's nest". Lindemann took the view that long-range military rockets were feasible only if they were propelled by solid fuels and would need to be of enormous size. He rejected arguments that relatively compact liquid fuels could be used to propel such weapons. In fairness, "Cherwell [Lindemann] had strong scientific grounds for doubting

SECTION 20

#1732780288348

2530-595: Is squadron in its army company-equivalent meaning. In the early 2000s, the Swedish Air Force absorbed the Helicopter Wing as its fourth combat air wing. Unlike the US Air Force, where the name of the base and the units stationed at that base are not related to each other, the name of the wing (flotilla) is in general considered synonymous with the air base where the unit is stationed. For example,

2645-604: The 414th Combat Training Squadron that manages RED FLAG training at Nellis AFB , Nevada will be commanded by an aeronautically rated officer in the rank of full colonel . Non-flying squadrons are also usually commanded by an officer in the rank of lieutenant colonel , but some may also be commanded by officers in the rank of major . In contrast to the organizational structure of United States Air Force units, where flying squadrons are separate from non-flying squadrons tasked with administrative, aircraft maintenance, or other support functions, flying squadrons in naval aviation in

2760-563: The Air Ministry decided that the technique was sound and they overrode Harris' objections and forced the issue. Harris responded by suggesting the pathfinders be distributed among the squadrons but again his objections were overruled, since it would not produce the desired result of having the targets clearly marked in advance of the arrival of the main force. A specialist force was formed in August 1942 by transferring existing squadrons from

2875-488: The British government he had snubbed and insulted. "Love me, love my dog, and if you don't love my dog, you damn well can't love me," Churchill reportedly said to a member of Parliament who had questioned his reliance on Lindemann, and later to the same MP Churchill added, "Don't you know that he is one of my oldest and greatest friends?". In July 1941 Lindemann was raised to the peerage as Baron Cherwell , of Oxford in

2990-513: The Dam Busters raid . Bennett wanted to lead raids but was denied operational flying as Harris was not prepared to risk losing him. The appointed Pathfinder (usually an experienced senior officer) circled the target, broadcasting radio instructions to both Pathfinders and Main Force aircraft, correcting aiming points and generally co-ordinating the attack. In September 1944, Gibson himself died in

3105-732: The Fleet Air Arm and Army Air Corps are also called squadrons. In the latter they are company-equivalent units, divided into flights and grouped into regiments . In the Air Training Corps of the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations, a squadron is a group of cadets who parade regularly. In the United States Air Force , the squadron is the principal organizational unit. An aggregation of two or more USAF squadrons will be designated as

3220-718: The General Strike of 1926 , and mobilised the reluctant staff of the Clarendon to produce copies of Churchill's anti-strike newspaper, the British Gazette . Lindemann was also alarmed and fearful of political developments in Germany . In the 1930s, Lindemann advised Winston Churchill when the latter was out of Government – the Wilderness Years – and leading a campaign for rearmament. He appointed to

3335-611: The Polish Air Force ( eskadra taktyczna , Polish for tactical squadron ) use the term squadron with its etymology originating from the naval and not the army meaning. The Czech Air Force and the Slovak Air Force use the generic term Letka as the squadron equivalent. The Turkish Air Force ( filo ) and the Hellenic Air Force ( μοιρα αεροπορικής ( mira aeroporikis ) - aviation squadron) use

3450-569: The Aviation Combat Element (ACE) of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), (12 MV-22s, 6 AH-1s, 4 CH-53s, 3 UH-1s, and 6 AV-8s). Other squadrons with a large number of Primary Aircraft Assigned (PAA) include Marine heavy helicopter squadrons (16 CH-53s), Marine light/attack helicopter squadrons (18 AH-1s and 9 UH-1s), and Marine attack squadrons (16 AV-8s). Although part of U.S. naval aviation, United States Coast Guard aviation units are centered on an air station or air facility versus

3565-680: The Bomber Command groups to make up the Path Finder Force (PFF). The PFF began with five squadrons: one from each of the operational Bomber Command Groups, 1 Group contributed No. 156 Squadron RAF (equipped with the Wellington medium bomber), 2 Group No. 109 Squadron RAF —then "special duties"—(Wellingtons and Mosquitoes), 3 Group No. 7 Squadron RAF ( Short Stirling heavy bombers), 4 Group No. 35 Squadron RAF (Halifax) and 5 Group No. 83 Squadron RAF (Lancaster). The PFF

Pathfinder (RAF) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3680-526: The British government's leading scientific adviser, with David Bensusan-Butt as his private secretary. Lindemann attended meetings of the War Cabinet, accompanied the prime minister on conferences abroad, and sent him an average of one missive a day. He saw Churchill almost daily for the duration of the war, and wielded more influence than any other civilian adviser. He would hold this office again for

3795-674: The CO as the next CO. In United States Marine Corps Aviation , in addition to flying units that are patterned in similar fashion to their U.S. Navy counterparts, the nomenclature "squadron" in the Marine Corps is also used to designate all battalion-equivalent, aviation support organizations. These squadrons include: wing headquarters, tactical air command, air control, air support, aviation logistics, wing support, and wing communications squadrons. In contrast to their USN counterparts, USMC flying squadrons and aviation support squadrons, while having

3910-499: The CO of 617 Squadron Leonard Cheshire , Cochrane was an advocate of precision low-level marking and lobbied to be allowed to prove the theory and for 5 Group to attempt targets and techniques that 8 Group would not. Cheshire marked targets using the fast Mosquito bomber, then later a Mustang fighter bomber. 617 Squadron achieved high levels of accuracy using the Stabilizing Automatic Bomb Sight ; with

4025-627: The Carringtons and the Mitfords , the Sitwells and the Huxley families . One frequently intoxicated visitor was a wayward Randolph Churchill . In 1932, Lindemann joined Winston to complete a road trip throughout Europe and they were dismayed at what they saw. Churchill later said, "A terrible process is astir. Germany is arming." Lindemann was prevailed upon to release Jackson in 1940 to join

4140-561: The Clarendon one of Churchill's social set, the young Welshman Derek Jackson . This brilliant young physicist, the son of Sir Charles Jackson , transferred from the Nobel prize-winning labs at Cambridge and worked on Lindemann's top-secret nuclear energy projects. Lindemann moved in rich circles at Biddesden , the Earl of Iveagh 's home, hosted with painter Augustus John and literary luminaries Lytton Strachey , John Betjeman , Evelyn Waugh ,

4255-617: The Cold War the Swedish Army, Navy and Air Force each had their own integral helicopter arms. After the end of it in line with the mid-90s force reduction and reforms they were fused into the Swedish Armed Forces Helicopter Wing as a service, independent from the three main armed forces branches. The Helicopter Wing adopted the term skvadron from the former Swedish Army Aviation for its units, which

4370-604: The County of Oxford. Lindemann enthusiastically supported the controversial Morgenthau Plan , which Churchill subsequently endorsed on 15 September 1944. Following his 1945 return to the Clarendon Laboratory, Lindemann created the Atomic Energy Authority . Lindemann was a teetotaller , non- smoker and a vegetarian , although Churchill would sometimes induce him to take a glass of brandy. He

4485-473: The County of Oxford. The following year he was made Paymaster General by Churchill, an office he retained until 1945. In 1943 he was also sworn of the Privy Council . When Churchill returned as Prime Minister in 1951, Lindemann was again appointed Paymaster-General, this time with a seat in the cabinet. He continued in this post until October 1953. In 1956 he was made Viscount Cherwell of Oxford, in

4600-568: The French escadrille . Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell , CH , PC , FRS ( / ˈ tʃ ɑːr w ɛ l / CHAR -wel ; 5 April 1886 – 3 July 1957) was a British physicist who was prime scientific adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II . He was involved in the development of radar and infra-red guidance systems. He

4715-460: The German technique of placing all available sets in a lead force. This was first proposed by Group Captain Sidney Bufton . Bomber Command's commander-in-chief Arthur "Bomber" Harris argued against the idea, with the backing of the majority of his Group commanders. His view was that an elite group would breed rivalry and envy and have an adverse effect on morale. Adding fuel to his argument

Pathfinder (RAF) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4830-524: The Indian subcontinent to Europe. Cherwell and Churchill's policies contributed heavily to the severity of the famine. Kenya , Tanganyika and Somaliland also suffered famine that year. Following the Air Ministry Area bombing directive on 12 February 1942, Lindemann presented in a paper on " Dehousing " to Churchill on 30 March 1942, which calculated the effects of area bombardment by

4945-540: The Lancasters was equipped with new high-frequency radio equipment that allowed it to communicate with the other bombers in the attack force. The follow-up force consisted of several groups, including PFF aircraft, who marked the target based on radio instructions from what would become known as ‘the Master Bomber’. Another group of aircraft were to attempt a new technique, bombing at a specific time after passing

5060-532: The Main Force lost their way to the target and either bombed randomly or turned for home. Another problem was that the illuminators would go out before the raid was complete, leaving the following aircraft to bomb on visible fires, if there were any. This led to the problem of " creepback ", when the newly arriving bombers would drop their bombs on the near side of the fire so they could turn for home earlier. This led to subsequent bombs slowly walking backward along

5175-560: The PFF soon expanded into a completely new Group—designated No 8 Group (PFF) —in January 1943. In April 1943 the group's strength was increased by two squadrons, with No 405 (RCAF) Squadron , flying Halifaxes, and No 97 Squadron, flying Lancasters. In June the Pathfinders gained two more squadrons—No 105 and 139 Squadrons—both of which were flying Mosquitos from RAF Marham . Later in the month Pathfinder HQ moved from RAF Wyton to Castle Hill House in Huntingdon . When new aircraft such as

5290-467: The PFF used new target illuminators adapted from 250 lb bomb casings. Photographs showed that these were placed with great accuracy and the crews of the Main Force claimed to have carried out a good attack. A report from Nuremberg stated that some bombs were dropped as far away as the town of Erlangen, nearly 10 miles to the north, and four people were killed there. In Nuremberg. the number of bombs recorded would indicate that approximately 50 aircraft hit

5405-499: The RAF's target marking and quickly deduced the basic strategy was a copy of their own from 1940/41. German intelligence reports from later in the war show a wealth of information on the PFF. On the night of 15/16 October 1942 on a raid by 289 aircraft against Cologne , the Germans lit a decoy target indicator that deceived the majority of the Main Force's bombs. Only one 4,000 lb, three smaller General Purpose and 210 incendiary bombs hit

5520-628: The RAF; Jackson flew in the Battle of Britain and won a DFC . Lindemann also assisted the new Prime Minister in the rescue of a number of German Jewish physicists, primarily at the University of Göttingen , who immigrated to Britain; they assisted the vital war work developing at the Clarendon Laboratory, including the Manhattan Project . Churchill got Lindemann onto the "Committee for the Study of Aerial Defence" which under Sir Henry Tizard

5635-726: The Swiss Army used the term company . In the modern German Air Force , a flying staffel is a battalion-equivalent, while a ground based support staffel is a company-equivalent. One such example are the air base defence units, which are squadrons ( German , plural: Staffeln ) formed into battalions. The ground based missile air defence units are also company- (in this case battery -)equivalent squadrons ( staffeln ). The Swedish Air Force adopted naval-like traditions in its formative years and for that historical reason calls its squadrons divisions (plural: divisioner ). They are grouped into air flotillas (plural: flygflottiljer ). During

5750-707: The United Kingdom circa 1871 and became naturalised. Frederick was born in Baden-Baden in Germany, where his American mother Olga Noble, the widow of a wealthy banker, was taking "the cure" . After schooling in Scotland and Darmstadt , he attended the University of Berlin , where he studied under Walther Nernst . He carried out research in physics at the Sorbonne that confirmed theories, first put forward by Albert Einstein , on specific heats at very low temperatures. For this and other scientific work, Lindemann

5865-670: The United States (e.g., United States Navy and United States Marine Corps ) typically contain both embedded administrative support functions and organizational level aircraft maintenance functions, plus all their associated personnel, as part of the total squadron manning. With few exceptions, oversight of the majority of these non-flying functions is assigned to the squadron's naval aviators and naval flight officers as their "ground job" in addition to their regular flying duties. With few exceptions, most U.S. Navy flying squadrons are commanded by aeronautically designated officers in

SECTION 50

#1732780288348

5980-430: The air base where the F 10 wing is stationed (in Ängelholm) is commonly referred to as F 10 even though it is the name of the tactical unit. In general, this only applies as long as a wing is stationed at the base. Case in point is Uppsala-Ärna air base, an active military airport but since the tactical unit located there has been disbanded it is no longer referred to as F 16. These naming conventions have been inherited from

6095-410: The attack vector, away from the target. To address these problems the PFF adopted new techniques. Their force was split into three groups for each raid. The 'illuminators' would drop white target illuminators at points along the attack vector, allowing aircraft to follow these markers over long distances and thus avoid getting lost en route. The 'visual markers' would drop coloured target indicators on

6210-485: The basis for a new Luftwaffe bomber wing or Kampfgeschwader (battle formation) that bore the same unit number. The British, who had developed similar navigation aids, faced the same problem of quantity. Bomber Command expected to have only 300 Gee sets available by January 1942, all of them hand-built. Mass-produced models were not expected until May. As it turned out, both predictions proved optimistic. An obvious solution to Bomber Command's problems would be simply to copy

6325-617: The battalion or brigade. In the U.S. Civil Air Patrol (CAP), a squadron is the basic administrative unit. As the official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force , CAP follows the USAF organizational model. An escadron is the equivalent unit in France's French Air and Space Force (Armée de l'air et de l'espace). It is normally subdivided into escadrilles of eight aircraft. The Spanish Air and Space Force and some air forces of other Spanish -speaking countries follow that tradition (with

6440-546: The bombers vulnerable only if they were picked up by searchlights , a relatively rare occurrence. Offsetting the advantages of night bombing was the understanding that identifying the targets and attacking them accurately would be much more difficult. This meant a night bomber force was useful only against very large targets such as cities and was one of the reasons daylight bombing was considered. The Germans had also studied this problem and had invested considerable effort in radio navigation techniques to address it, demonstrating

6555-607: The bombers were never even heard over the targets let alone dropping their bombs nearby. At first these reports were dismissed but as other branches of the UK armed forces complained a report was commissioned. The result was the Butt Report of 18 August 1941, which noted that by the time the aircraft reached the Ruhr only one in 10 ever flew within five miles of its target. Half of all the bombs carried into combat and dropped—many returned—fell in open country. Only one per cent of all

6670-481: The bombing campaign from 1943 until the end of the war. Some of the more usual tasks were as: "Finders"; these were 8 Group aircraft tasked with dropping sticks of illuminating flares, firstly at critical points along the bombing route to aid navigation and keep the bomber stream compact and then across the approximate target area. If conditions were cloudy then these were dropped "blind" using H2S navigational radar. "Illuminators"; were PFF aircraft flying in front of

6785-431: The bombs fell in open country north and west of the city. Local reports stated that some bombs fell in the city, causing 17 large and 53 small fires and moderate property damage. Five people were killed, including two anti-aircraft gunners, and 95 people were injured. The outlying villages of Schwalbach and Eschborn were heavily bombed. Six Lancasters, five Wellingtons, four Stirlings and one Halifax were lost, 7.1 per cent of

6900-445: The bombs were even in the vicinity of the target. Clearly something had to be done to address this or, as the other forces suggested, the strategic campaign should simply be dropped. Around this time Frederick Lindemann wrote an infamous report on dehousing , suggesting that the bomber force be directed against German urban areas, destroying as many houses as possible and thus rendering the German workforce unable to work well. Accepting

7015-448: The causes for this disaster were debated it became clear that bomber forces could not defend themselves. Either bombing raids needed to have fighter escort, which was difficult given the limited range of the fighters, or attacks had to be made at night when the opponent's fighters could not see them. In the era before the widespread use of radar and the techniques needed to guide fighters to their targets with radar, night bombing would render

SECTION 60

#1732780288348

7130-481: The city out of a force of almost 70,000 bombs in total. Follow-up efforts during October and November were mostly small raids, including a number against cities in Italy. Weather and operational problems meant that raids during this period were limited and of greatly varied results. On 20/21 December 1942 H. E. Bufton personally led a force of six de Havilland Mosquitos on a raid against a power station at Lutterade ,

7245-460: The civilian toll of 15, with 187 civilians and 64 soldiers injured. Among the buildings severely damaged were all three of the factories of the Henschel aircraft company. Of the 306 aircraft attacking the target, 31 were lost, 10.1 per cent of the force. The next night the PFF operated against Nuremberg as part of a force of 159 aircraft. Crews were ordered to attack Nuremberg at low altitude and

7360-417: The de Havilland Mosquito became available, the PFF got the first examples and then equipped them with ever more sophisticated electronic equipment, such as Oboe, the radio navigation and bombing aid. By January the pace of Bomber Command missions had dramatically increased, with major raids being carried out almost every night. On 11/12 February 1943 against Wilhelmshaven , the PFF used their H2S radar for

7475-560: The fillings for the various Target Indicator bombs. Between 1942 and 1945 83, 97 and 627 Squadrons passed to 5 Group in April 1944 Squadron (aviation) In most armed forces, two or more squadrons will form a group or a wing . Some military forces (including the United States Air Force , United States Space Force , French Air and Space Force , Royal Air Force , German Air Force , Royal Netherlands Air Force , Belgian Air Component and Republic of Singapore Air Force ) also use

7590-463: The first time, dropping parachute flares above the heavy cloud cover in a technique known as ‘sky marking’. The follow-up force observed an incredible event, a huge explosion seen through the complete cloud cover that lingered for 10 minutes. It was later learned this was the explosion of the naval ammunition depot at Mariensiel , which destroyed 120 acres (49 hectares). Mission size continued to grow throughout, and although many missions continued to mark

7705-450: The first two years of Churchill's 1951 peacetime administration. Lindemann established a special statistical branch, known as ' S-Branch ', within the government, constituted from subject specialists, and reporting directly to Churchill. This branch scrutinised the performance of the regular ministries and prioritised the logistical machinery of warfare. S-Branch distilled thousands of sources of data into succinct charts and figures, so that

7820-477: The following heavies to bomb on and hit a number of industrial buildings. Another mission by three Mosquitos attacked the German night-fighter control room at Florennes airfield in Belgium, but there was complete cloud cover and the results were not known. It was clear by this point, after less than six months, that the PFF concept was a great advance. Picked crews from the bomber groups were allowed to transfer and

7935-535: The force. Five Pathfinder aircraft, including that of the commanding officer of 7 Squadron, were among the losses. The PFF finally proved itself on the night of 27/28 August 1942 against Kassel . There was little cloud over the city and the Pathfinders were able to illuminate the area well. Widespread damage was caused, particularly in the south-western parts of the city. Kassel reported that 144 buildings were destroyed and 317 seriously damaged. Several military establishments were hit and 28 soldiers were killed, more than

8050-407: The forecasts that were being made of a 70–80 ton rocket with a 10 ton warhead". A pivotal exchange where Churchill rebuffed Lindemann occurred at the Cabinet Defence Committee (Operations) meeting on 29 June 1943, and was dramatised in the film Operation Crossbow . Lindemann's political career was a result of his close friendship with Winston Churchill , who protected Lindemann from the many in

8165-483: The heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax , would be arriving in quantity. These technological developments dovetailed with the policy changes influenced by Lindemann's report. Faced with the same navigation problems as the RAF, the Luftwaffe had developed radio aids that were widely used during their bombing campaign, the Blitz of 1940–1941. Lacking enough equipment to install in all their aircraft, an experimental group, Kampfgruppe 100 (KGr 100),

8280-399: The loss of just under 200 aircraft on operations or "damaged beyond repair". The Pathfinder Force flew a total of 50,490 sorties against some 3,440 targets and at least 3,727 members were killed on operations. The proportion of Pathfinder aircraft to Main Force bombers could vary according to the difficulty and location of the target; 1 to 15 was common, though it could be as low as 1 to 3. By

8395-458: The main force who would drop markers or target indicators (TIs) onto the designated 'aiming point' already illuminated by the "Finders". Again, if conditions were cloudy H2S navigational radar was used. These TIs were designed to burn with various and varying colours to prevent the German defenses lighting decoy fires. Various TI's were dubbed "Pink Pansies", "Red Spots", and "Smoke Puffs". "Illuminators" could include Mosquitoes equipped with "Oboe" if

8510-495: The mentally incompetent. He believed – Mukerjee concludes, referring to Lindemann's lecture on Eugenics – that Science could yield a race of humans blessed with 'the mental make-up of the worker bee' ... At the lower end of the race and class spectrum, one could remove the ability to suffer or to feel ambition ... Instead of subscribing to what he called 'the fetish of equality', Lindemann recommended that human differences should be accepted and indeed enhanced by means of science. It

8625-740: The navy where Swedish military aviation has its roots. During the infant years of combat aviation in World War I and specifically with the trench stalemate at the front military aircraft partially took over the reconnaissance role from the cavalry. With that in mind the British Royal Flying Corps adopted the squadron nomenclature. After the fusion of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service into an independent Royal Air Force ,

8740-422: The necessary accuracy of only 94 yd (86 m) at the V weapon launch site at Abbeville . 5 Group also invented various techniques, such as the "5 Group corkscrew" to evade enemy fighters, and the "quick landing system". The Light Night Striking Force (LNSF) was a development of the Pathfinder Force's use of the fast and long-ranged Mosquito bomber, which could carry a sizeable bomb load. Under 8 Group,

8855-665: The new armed forces branch introduced its own system of ranks, with the commanders of squadrons becoming squadron leaders . The rapid sophistication in technology and combat tactics has led to increased requirements and qualifications of the officers in command positions and the commanders of RAF flying squadrons were upgraded in the post-World War II period from squadron leaders to wing commanders . Today RAF flying squadrons are battalion -equivalents, while combat and combat service support ground squadrons such as communications or administrative squadrons are company -equivalents and still usually commanded by squadron leaders. Flying units in

8970-454: The number of Mosquito squadrons was built up and used for harassing raids on Germany. To the two (Oboe-equipped) Mosquito squadrons already in the Pathfinder Force, 139 Squadron was added in June 1943, which Bennett intended to use for diversionary raids to draw the German night fighters away from the main force. In February 1944 a raid made entirely by Mosquitos was mounted against Düsseldorf. It

9085-463: The precision of their bombing campaigns. He almost undermined the vital work of Sir Henry Tizard and his team who developed all the important radar technology. Lindemann argued against the rumoured existence of the V-2 rocket , asserting it was "a great hoax to distract our attention from some other weapon." He mistakenly concluded that "to put a four-thousand horsepower turbine in a twenty-inch space

9200-480: The rank of commander . Exceptions are primarily the Fleet Replacement Squadrons (FRS), which are often, though not always, commanded by aeronautically designated captains . Commanding officers (COs) of U.S. Navy flying squadrons other than FRS units will be assisted by an executive officer (XO) of the same rank who functions as a second-in-command and who will eventually "fleet up" and relieve

9315-513: The recommendation of Henry Tizard , who had been a colleague in Berlin. Also in 1919, he was one of the first to suggest that an electrically neutral wind of positively charged protons and electrons is emitted from the Sun . He may have been unaware that Kristian Birkeland had speculated three years earlier that the solar wind might be a mixture of positively and negatively charged particles. At

9430-451: The recommendations of Lindemann's report after intense debate, the British began planning a major offensive starting in the spring of 1942 with the aim of destroying German cities. By 1940 the British had started development of a number of night navigation aids and were already testing the Gee hyperbolic navigation system on operations. These would be available in quantity in early 1942, just as

9545-461: The same time he worked on the theory of specific heats and on temperature inversion in the stratosphere , and began to bring the two scientific disciplines together. In the field of chemical kinetics , he proposed the Lindemann mechanism in 1921 for unimolecular chemical reactions, and showed that the first step is one of bimolecular activation. Around this time, Clementine Churchill –

9660-548: The seaborne trade of large numbers of countries" but the Ministry was ignored. The "menace of famine suddenly loomed up like a hydra-headed monster with a hundred clamouring mouths" according to C. B. A. Behrens in the official history of Allied merchant shipping. It has been estimated between 1.5 and 4 million people died during the Bengal famine of 1943 , despite the fact that food stocks continued to be produced and shipped out of

9775-882: The squadron denomination originating from the army term. The Royal Norwegian Air Force use the skvadron term also originating from the army term. So does the Hungarian Air Force with repülőszázad ( Hungarian for aircraft squadron or flying squadron ; the cavalry company-equivalent term is század ). Many Eastern European countries use the term originating from the French word escadrille : Russian Air Force - Эскадрилья ( eskadril'ya ), Ukrainian Air Force - Ескадрилья ( eskadril'ya ), Belarusian Air Force - Эскадрыльля ( eskadryil'ya ), Romanian Air Force - escadrilă , Bulgarian Air Force - Ескадрила ( eskadrila ), Serbian Air Force - Ескадрила ( eskadrila ), Croatian Air Force - eskadrila . The Royal Danish Air Force uses eskadrille , also originating from

9890-425: The squadron level, such as missile squadrons, aircraft maintenance squadrons, intelligence squadrons, aerospace medicine squadrons, security forces squadrons, civil engineering squadrons and force support squadrons, as well as numerous other examples. USAF flying squadrons are typically commanded by an aeronautically rated officer in the rank of lieutenant colonel , although some particularly large squadrons, such as

10005-430: The start of 1944, the bulk of Bomber Command was bombing within 3 miles of the PFF indicators, an appreciable improvement in accuracy since 1942. The success or failure of a raid now largely depended on the Pathfinders' marker placement and the success of further correction marking. PFF crews found themselves given ever increasingly sophisticated and complex jobs that were constantly modified and developed tactically during

10120-703: The start of the Second World War in September 1939 the doctrine of RAF Bomber Command was based on tight formations of heavily armed bombers attacking during daylight and fending off attacks by fighters with their guns. In early missions over France and the Low Countries there was no clear outcome regarding the success of the bombers’ guns: the Luftwaffe lacked widespread radar so their interception efforts were disorganised. On 18 December 1939

10235-752: The status of the nation's food supplies (for example) could be instantly evaluated. The bar charts now on display in the Cabinet War Rooms which compare Allied shipping tonnage lost to new ships delivered each month, and those comparing bomb tonnage dropped by Germany on Britain with that dropped by the Allies on Germany each month, are testaments to both the intellectual and the psychological power of his statistical presentations. Lindemann's statistical branch often caused tensions between government departments, but because it allowed Churchill to make quick decisions based on accurate data which directly affected

10350-535: The target area. By dropping different-coloured indicators and calling aircraft to attack each one in turn, the entire area was heavily bombed. The aircraft from No 5 Group used their time-from-landmark technique again. The estimate has appeared in many sources that this raid set back the V-2 experimental programme by at least two months and reduced the scale of the eventual rocket attack. The V-2 team had to move their testing facilities hastily elsewhere. The Master Bomber became

10465-538: The target correctly, with the majority of the following Main Force finding the target and bombing it. The post-raid analysis showed that 460 houses had been destroyed, 1,361 seriously damaged and 7,592 lightly damaged. Added to this list were hundreds of light and medium industrial buildings, including the Weser aircraft works and the Atlas shipyard and associated warehouses. The raid was a complete success. Another improvement

10580-483: The target was within the range of this bombing aid. "Markers"; would then drop incendiaries onto the TIs just prior to the Main Force arrival. Further "Markers" called "Backers-Up" or "Supporters" would be distributed at points within the main bomber stream to remark or reinforce the original TIs as required. As the war wore on, the role of "Master Bomber" was introduced. This was an idea that had been used by Guy Gibson in

10695-412: The target, but only if they were sure it had been identified. Finally the 'backers-up' or 'fire starters' used the visual markers' flares as the aim point for their own incendiary bombs to light fires in the proper location, which would burn longer than the flares. The new technique was first employed on 4/5 September 1942 on a raid of 251 aircraft against Bremen . The weather was clear and the PFF marked

10810-565: The term "squadron" for non-flying ground units (e.g. radar squadrons, missile squadrons, air defense squadrons, aircraft maintenance squadrons, security forces squadrons, civil engineering squadrons, range operations squadrons, range management squadrons, weather squadrons, medical squadrons, etc.). In World War I, the Imperial German Army used the term Squadron ( staffel ), whereas the Austro-Hungarian armed forces and

10925-420: The town. 137 people were killed, 126 civilians and 11 foreigners. 23 bombers were shot down, 14.5 per cent of the force. Most of these were Wellingtons, which lost 34 per cent of their number. On 1/2 September 1942 the PFF illuminated Saarbrücken as part of a 231-aircraft force, but post-raid analysis showed this to be Saarlouis , 13 miles to the north and situated on a similar bend in the river. The next night

11040-456: The war effort, its importance should not be underestimated. In 1940, Lindemann supported the experimental department MD1 . He worked on hollow charge weapons, the sticky bomb and other new weapons. General Ismay , who supervised MD1, recalled: Churchill used to say that the Prof's brain was a beautiful piece of mechanism, and the Prof did not dissent from that judgement. He seemed to have

11155-583: The wife of Winston , at that time a government minister – partnered with Lindemann for a charity tennis match. Although the two men had very different lifestyles, they both excelled at a sport: Churchill's was polo . Lindemann's ability to explain scientific issues concisely, and his excellent flying skills, probably impressed Churchill, who had given up trying to earn a pilot's licence because of Clementine's grave concerns. They became close friends and remained so for 35 years, with Lindemann visiting Chartwell more than 100 times from 1925 to 1939. Lindemann opposed

11270-527: The wrong targets or fail for other reasons the damage caused continued to increase. On one particularly successful raid against Essen on 5/6 March 1943 160 acres of land were destroyed, with 53 separate buildings within the Krupp factories hit by bombs. On the night of 20/21 June 1943 another change in technique was tested by 60 Lancasters (mostly from 5 Group) against Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen , which were believed to be making radar. In this raid one of

11385-789: Was a part of his character". Fearing food shortages in Britain, he convinced Churchill to divert 56 percent of the British merchant ships operating in the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, a move that added two million tons of wheat as well as raw materials for war fighting to stocks in Britain, but meant few ships were available to carry wheat from Australia to India [ 25 ] . The Ministry of War Transport warned that such dramatic cuts to shipping capacity in South East Asia would "portend violent changes and perhaps cataclysms in

11500-576: Was an excellent pianist, and sufficiently able as a tennis player to compete at Wimbledon . Lindemann, or the "Prof", never married. In his younger years, he had pursued two romantic interests but was rejected on both occasions. When he was 49, Lindemann became entranced with the 27-year-old Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford . One day in February 1937, he learnt from Lady Elizabeth's father that, while travelling in Italy, she had fallen ill with pneumonia and died; upon

11615-403: Was closed to him. He was as obstinate as a mule, and unwilling to admit that there was any problem under the sun which he was not qualified to solve. He would write a memorandum on high strategy one day, and a thesis on egg production on the next. He seemed to try to give the impression of wanting to quarrel with everybody, and of preferring everyone's room to their company; but once he had accepted

11730-496: Was commanded by Australian officer Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett , who was to be the youngest officer promoted to RAF Air Vice Marshal , at the age of 33, in 1943. Bennett was not the Air Ministry's first choice: Harris opposed the first choice, Basil Embry , the leader of 2 Group . The squadrons were located on adjacent airfields within 3 Group at Oakington, Graveley, Wyton and Warboys with a headquarters at RAF Wyton; 3 Group

11845-589: Was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1920. In 1911 he was invited to the Solvay Conference on "Radiation and the Quanta", where he was the youngest attendee. He was known to friends as "the Prof" in reference to his position at the University of Oxford , and as "Baron Berlin" to his many detractors because of his German accent and haughty aristocratic manner. Lindemann believed that

11960-604: Was formed of the usual marker aircraft from 105 Squadron and 692 Squadron Mosquitos, each carrying a 4,000 lb "cookie" and backup aircraft with 500 lb delayed action bombs. With Harris' support, Bennett formed more Mosquito squadrons to expand the LNSF, giving him nine bomber squadrons, as well as the Oboe-equipped markers and 8 Group's meteorological Mosquitos. The LNSF achieved 27,239 sorties, their best month being March 1945 with nearly 3,000 sorties. The LNSF suffered

12075-460: Was given all available receivers and trained extensively on their use. KGr 100 would fly over their target using these systems and drop flares, at which the following aircraft would then aim their bombs. On rare occasions KGr 100 was used as a pure bombing force, demonstrating the ability to drop bombs within 150 yards of their targets in any weather. The KGr 100 unit itself would, in mid-December 1941, be renamed I. Gruppe / Kampfgeschwader 100, as

12190-415: Was his dislike for Bufton. His idea for improving accuracy was to hold competitions within groups to deliver improved bombing. In rebuttal, Sir Henry Tizard , adviser and one of the chief scientists supporting the war effort, responded, "I do not think the formation of a first XV at rugby union makes little boys play any less enthusiastically.” Studying the German results, notably reports by R. V. Jones ,

12305-435: Was in theory an easy target for the PFF on their first operation but the winds shifted and the bomber force drifted north of the target to a part of Denmark where the coast also had many inlets. Sixteen PFF crews claimed to have marked the target area and 78 Main Force crews claimed to have bombed it. Reports from Flensburg stated that the town had not been hit but a Danish report showed that the towns of Sønderborg and Abenra and

12420-537: Was no longer necessary, he wrote, to wait for 'the haphazard process of natural selection to ensure that the slow and heavy mind gravitates to the lowest form of activity.' At the outbreak of the First World War , Lindemann was playing tennis in Germany and had to leave in haste to avoid internment . In 1915 he joined the staff of the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough . He developed

12535-420: Was opposed to its creation but had identified Bennett (10 Squadron was in his group) as the sort of person suitable for the job and passed over a squadron of Halifax heavy bombers. AVM Coryton had been a greater opponent but supplied a squadron of the new Avro Lancasters. There was rivalry between 8 Group and 5 Group , driven by the rivalry between Bennett and the commander of 5 Group, Sir Ralph Cochrane . Through

12650-578: Was putting its resources behind the development of radar . Lindemann's presence was disruptive, insisting instead that his own ideas of aerial mines and infra-red beams be given priority over radar. To resolve the situation, the committee dissolved itself to reform as a new body without him. He stayed in close contact with the Jacksons at Rignell Farm, who enriched a poor wartime diet with dairy products they brought into Oxford themselves. When Churchill became Prime Minister , he appointed Lindemann as

12765-460: Was responsible for the Force administratively though it was under the direct command of Harris. The PFF was first put into action on the night of 18/19 August 1942, when 118 Bomber Command aircraft attacked Flensburg . PFF bombers were the first 31 aircraft of the raid, including Stirlings, Halifaxes, Lancasters and Wellingtons – from 7, 35, 83 and 156 squadrons. Flensburg, on an inlet of the Baltic,

12880-473: Was sceptical of the first reports of the enemy's V-weapons programme. He pressed the case for the strategic area bombing of cities. His abiding influence on Churchill stemmed from close personal friendship, as a member of the latter's country-house set. In Churchill's second government, he was given a seat in the cabinet, and later created Viscount Cherwell of Oxford. Lindemann was the second of three sons of Adolph Friedrich Lindemann , who had emigrated to

12995-606: Was the introduction of larger bomb casings for the target indicators, starting with the 'Pink Pansy' in an adapted 4,000 lb casing. Using these for the first time on the night of 10/11 September 479 aircraft attacked Düsseldorf and caused enormous damage. In addition to thousands of houses destroyed or heavily damaged, 39 industrial firms in Düsseldorf and 13 in Neuss were damaged so much that all production ceased, and 19,427 people were bombed out. The Germans were well aware of

13110-450: Was used as a prefix, e.g. "Musical Parramatta". In all cases, further target Indicators would be dropped in the course of the raid to reinforce the marking and to compensate for earlier TIs either burning out or being extinguished by the bombing. For marking the Pathfinders used a number of special "Target Indicator" (TI) markers and bombs. These ejected coloured flares or illuminated the target. Candles and other pyrotechnics were used as

13225-412: Was very difficult. Bomber Command pressed ahead with a night bombing campaign starting in 1940. Bomber crews reported good results, turning for home if they lost their way or could not find the target because of the weather and pressing on only if they felt confident they could identify the target with certainty. However it was not long before reports started reaching the UK from observers on the ground that

#347652