BOOK REVIEW

The RAF Pathfinders

June 2026

Pathfinder Operations in January 1945

1 January 1945

Page 1

Seventeen Pathfinder DeHavilland Mosquitoes from No. 8 Group Royal Air Force Bomber Command attacked railway tunnels between the Rhine and the Ardennes battle. The aim, to prevent the reinforcement of German forces.

In broad daylight and with one ordnance each, seventeen Mosquitoes dived to two hundred feet (61 meters) they were the short-fuse delayed bombs into the tunnel entrances. Each Mosquito made one dummy run onto each tunnel in full view of local villagers, to then return immediately to drop the ordnance perfectly into each selected entrance. Pilot officer D.R. Tucker and Sergeant F.A.J. David of 571 Squadron located three tunnels and having secured with pinpoint accuracy, the destruction of all three tunnel entrances, they banked round ato review the scene, to then realise that the whole tunnel had erupted, causing a landslide into the path of an approaching train.

*A DeHavilland Mosquito over Liverpool ~ my old home*

Page 2

Mosquito Mark XVI PF411 M5-B

W R CHORLEY Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 1945.

There is a single entry for Operation Railway Tunnels on 1 January 1945. Mr Chorley records the loss of a Mosquito Mark XVI PF411 M5-B flying from RAF Wyton and serving with 128 Squadron. The entry reads…

PF411 took off at 06:41 from RAF Wyton but crashed due to engine failure.

Flight Lieutenant Wellstead DFC DFM
lies at rest in Bournemouth North Cemetery

Flt Lt Wellstead’s earlier DFM gazetted on 13 February 1942, following a Wellington tour with 99 Squadron, and as a senior non-commissioned officer. As with so many, eventual commissioned service carried with it the same dangers. It is most appropriate to that this airman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal and then subsequently the Distinguished Flying Cross. Each are equal.

Flight Lieutenant G P Mullen DFC

lies at rest in Scotland at Tillicoultry Cemetery, Clackmannanshire

Page 4

raison d'être

Why do I refer to this as a priceless purchase?

For two reasons:

because my mother‘s brother, Sergeant Harry Alfred Marshall RAF, a Flight Engineer, was serving with 405 (City Vancouver) Pathfinder Squadron RCAF. I’m quite sure that he and his collagues would have been aware of these superb twin-engine Mosquitoes in the vital work they undertook as Pathfinders, as well as the four-engine Avro Lancasters in his own service and his air crew members’ operations; indeed, these two aircraft designs were frquently serving together as Pathfinders on the same operations
More poignantly, as the following explains…

I was with my mother in a local garden centre and we had just sat down for a pot of tea. Mum had Alzheimer's and dementia although one would not have thought so in physical observation, as mum was extremely well dressed and quite able to hold her conversations. Keeping my eye on mum, I wanted to quickly go back to a line of books.

Have I seen correctly? RAF Pathfinders? Yes, indeed I had!

I promptly purchased the book and shot back to our table before mum had begun to wonder where I had disappeared. Apparently, as a little boy, I did have a tendency to go wandering off, something I have not been aware of until now as I increasingly keep in step with the with the A&D timescale.

I will never forget my mother's reaction when mum saw the cover of Martyn Charlton's book. Turning it over in her hands several times, Mrs. Nancy Webb neé Marshall had been given a priceless jewel. I will never forget that day in Webbs Garden Centre near Bishops Cleeve, on 2 April 2015. I sat down quietly and my mum asked me to write something in the book to mark the occasion.

The Second World War is now very rapidly passing into long distant memory, and increasingly so far as the 21st century is concerned, irrelevant history.

It is now 2026 and our mother passed away in May 2016. I remember that day very well.

"Ken, Harry’s here."

"Oh, yes mum? Where's Uncle Harry sitting?”

"He's here, sitting on the bed where you do."

"Oh, right. Hi Uncle." (And I waved ever so briefly at the space and smiled adding, how lovely to see you, Uncle.)

"I'll sit here in the arm chair, Mum.”

“Yes, you do that.”

The moment was soon gone.

Later that night the final close down began. And the one thing I’m so pleased with, is that earlier day in the garden centre tea shop, and seeing this book on display.

Now and again, and very rarely, I understand the term serendipity.

I did that day!

Source

The RAF Pathfinders Bomber Command’s Elite Squadrons

by

Martyn Chorlton

First published in 2012

by

Countryside Books 3 Catherine Road Newbury Berkshire

www. Countrysidebooks.co.uk

ISBN 978 1 84674 201 9