Let’s hear it for the Navs.
Now, back in the day, we used to navigate by drawing lines with chevrons on them, on paper charts, (no really) - and it usually worked out OK.
So, as we have been immersed in Lancaster Operations in recent posts around here, I hope that the attendant photos will be of interest to this congregation.
My late Godfather, name of Leo Charles Bent, a Lancashire lad, became a Nav. in Lancs. (The aircraft not the county), in the last year of WW2.
He trained at the No. 41 Air School in S. Africa, and after the usual AFU & OTU sessions he joined Bomber Command Main Force with No. 44 (Rhodesia Squadron) on Lancasters. He flew 13 ops. in 9 weeks with them from Dunholme Lodge.
His first op. was to Caen, Normandy, on 12 June 1944, (just 6 days after D-Day).
After a course at NTU Warboys (Sept 1944) he became a Pathfinder Nav. on No. 83 Squadron P.F.F. ( Lancasters again), this time out of Coningsby. He did 17 ops. with them. His final raid, on 25 April 1945 was to the oil refinery at Tonsberg, Norway, (the last Heavy Bomber operation of the war in Europe, involving 107 Lancasters and 12 Mosquitoes. That was the finish of his tour (30 ops.) and VE Day came 2 weeks later.
After his passing (aged 91), he left me his log book and the chart that you see here. It shows all the devious tracks (feints) and turning points that they made, before homing in on the target. All his 30 ops. are here, numbered and dated.
I hope that you can enlarge the photos and that you can then appreciate this genuine relic of WW2 paper chart navigation.
Ian BB
