HOW PATHFINDERS WORK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 122, 18 February 1944, Page 5

HOW PATHFINDERS WORK

Flowing Lights Of Markers

LONDON, February 17. Describing the work of the "pathfinders” in night rai'.lts against enemy targets, a commentator said that when he witnessed certain tests carried out over Britain recently his feeling as he stood waiting in the darkness with the menacing hum of the motors of approaching aircraft growing to a roar, was indescribable. ’ The days when bomber crews longed for clear moonlight nights—the “bombers’ moon”—have long passed. Today, with the development of more and more precision instruments for blind-flying, and the development of the pathfinder technique, the more clouds there are the less the crews have to contend with fighter and accurately-directed flak opposition. The first step of the pathfinders as they arrived approximately over the target was the spreading of a curtain of flares. "A cluster of pinpoints of light, each growing rapidly into a fiery balllike glare in the sky, began to. light up ■the area where we were standing, the commentator said. “Soon the glare was terrific,'and one could sympathize with the dog which ran squealing about in its terr O r.... “Then there w(is a light woof —not the'heavy explosion of the usual bomb — and a great splash of colour appeared on the ground. There were more and more woofs, and the pools of molten colour befan to flow in all directions, while small explosions—the Germans complain that these prevent anyone going near to extinguish the markers —go on from time to time. , , “An extraordinary feature of the molten flare is that it will flow up and over buildings in its path, so that the objectives become a mass of coloured light easily distinguishable through the clouds by the special instruments in the latest bomb-sights. Bombing Strength from Britain.

The concentration of bombing force in Britain today is immense, says another commentator. The. United States Army Force today can send up nearly as big a force of heavy bombers as the Royal Air Force, though, of course, their bombloads are not yet ns big. A new type of Halifax, the Mark HI, has been put into operations. It has many refinements not present in the earlier types, including Bristol Hercules engines of considerably greater. horsepower. It has nine machineguns, four in the nose, one in the after-turret, and four in the fuselage, and its overall weight has increased. Details of its performance have not been released, but the earlier type 'had a speed of 300 miles an hour, with a range of 3000 miles, and a bomb load of 5i tons.