ABSTRACT
When visual bombing conditions existed, PFF used flares to illuminate the target area for aiming their ground markers, which served as aiming points for the main force. PFF also employed blind-bombing radio and radar techniques, including Gee, Oboe, and H2S airborne radar (see Night Operations, Air). At its best, Air ViceMarshal Ralph Cochrane’s Number 5 Group, using a low-altitude offset tactic to drop ground indicators away from the dust and smoke obscuring the target, could achieve accuracies within 300 yards. At its worst, the PFF misidentified Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, on 16-17 April 1943, and the main force bombed an asylum seven miles from the target. The pathfinder technique provided for greater bomb concentrations, but only if the PFF found and identified the correct aiming point.
