RAF Pathfinder Operations
BOOK REVIEW
The RAF Pathfinders
June 2026
Pathfinder Operations in January 1945
1 January 1945
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 200 feet they were the short-fuse delayed bombs into the tunnel entrances. Each Mosquito made one dummy run on each tunnel in full view of local villagers, returning to drop the ordnance perfectly into the entrance. Pilot officer D.R. Tucker and Sergeant F.A.J. David of 571 Squadron lovated three tunnels and having secured with pinpoint accuracy, the destruction of all three tunnel entrances, they banked round and, looking back, realised that the whole tunnel had erupted, causing a landslide into the path of an approaching train.
I mention this because my mother‘s brother, Sergeant Harry Marshall RAF, a Flight Engineer, was serving with 405 (city Vancouver) Pathfinder Squadron RCAF. I’m quite sure that he would have been aware of these superb twin-engine Mosquitoes and 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.
Why do I refer to this as a priceless purchase? In 2015? 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 of thought that 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 a 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 doubt increasingly with the timescale of moving with A&D.
I will never forget my mother's reaction when mum saw the cover of Martyn Charlton's book. Turning it over in her hands, 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.
The Second World War is now very rapidly passing into long distant memory, so far as the 21st century is concerned, and 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 at the space ever so brifly at the space)
"I'll sit here in the arm chair, Mum.”
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, very rarely, do 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
Enemy Coastline Ahead
Avro Lancasters of 83 Squadron crossing the enemy coastline – from an original painting by Colin Doggett and to whom all rights are reserved.
Official Review to Content
Priceless Purchase
