By Tom Horrocks
In 1942 the RAF 109 Squadron relocated to RAF Wyton to form one of the first five elite Pathfinder Force squadrons created by Group Captain S.O. Bufton, 8 Group Bomber Command using de Havilland Mosquito light bombers and Oboe wireless and navigation aids to mark bomb aim points against enemy targets. My father, Sergeant Norman Raymond Horrocks joined the 109 Squadron in May 1942 before its reformation in August 1942, as the Pathfinder Force (PFF).
In September of 2024, my wife Lydia and I travelled to the UK to visit a few sites including the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London, RAF Wyton and RAF Little Staughton where my Dad served from 1942 to 1945. The PFF was formed to improve accuracy results under Bomber Command. RAF Wyton was the first base to operationalize Oboe, blind bombing, radio direction finding technology and the 109 Squadron was the first to employ it on January 1, 1943, when a raid on Dusseldorf was conducted. Oboe and radar advancements were crucial to the RAF’s campaign against the highly industrialized Ruhr Valley in Germany.
RAF Wyton remains active today as a top secret intelligence base with no runways in use, while Little Staughton was disbanded after the war and is currently serves as a private airfield, industrial park and has been developed for solar energy generation. The adjacent photo is a memorial to the PFF squadrons at RAF Wyton.
The following three photos from Little Staughton show the small memorial to the 109 and 582 Squadrons at the site entrance with an existing refurbished WWII hanger.
The Bomber Command Memorial at Green Park on Piccadilly in London near the RAF club commemorates the RAF and other Commonwealth and Allied Air Forces. The monument unveiled in 2012 by Queen Elizabeth gives Canada prominence for its contribution in the Battle of Britain.
Aluminum from the airframe from an RCAF Handley Page Halifax bomber of the 426 Squadron that had crashed in Belgium in May 1944 and was used to build the monument roof. The airplane wreckage was removed from a swamp in 1997 with three crew members found still at their posts. They were buried with full military honours in Geraardsbergen with the remains of the aircraft sent to Canada and used for a Halifax restoration in Trenton, Ontario.
