page_title: Hamish Mahaddie
section_title: With the Pathfinders
hierarchical_section_title: Hamish Mahaddie / With the Pathfinders
caption_attribution_description: English: Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. An Avro Lancaster B Mark III of No. 619 Squadron RAF, caught in floodlights while running up its engines at night at Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
context_page_description: Group Captain Thomas Gilbert "Hamish" Mahaddie, DSO, DFC, AFC & Bar, FRAeS was a Scotsman who served in the Royal Air Force. As a youth he was selected for an apprentice program and was trained as an RAF ground crew "metal rigger". He had earned his wings and reached the rank of sergeant pilot by the outbreak of the Second World War. In his second tour he was selected to be a member of the newly formed "Pathfinder Force". At the end of his second combat tour he was brought onto Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett's Headquarter Staff in the position of “Group Training Inspector”. In this position he selected, recruited and trained aircrews to serve in the Pathfinder Force. Within the span of two years from the start of the war Mahaddie had risen in rank from sergeant to group captain. Following the war he continued to serve in the RAF until 1958. Out of the service he worked as an electronics consultant for the Armed Services, and as an aircraft consultant for the film industry. His most remarkable accomplishment in the film industry was the procurement of aircraft, crews and service personnel for the film Battle of Britain.
context_section_description: In August 1942 Mahaddie finally was granted his request to transfer to an operational squadron. For his second combat tour he was chosen to join a newly formed group called the Pathfinder Force. Normally Bomber Command crews were considered to complete a tour of combat flying after completing 30 sorties. In the Pathfinder Force crews initially were required to complete 60 sorties to complete a tour. With only 30 percent of crews reaching the end of their tours alive after 30 sorties, the Pathfinder Force was asking for a marked commitment from those who joined them. Made up entirely of experienced pilots, Mahaddie was one of the most experienced among them. Since he had been flying for four years before the outbreak of the war, he had 3,000 flying hours under his belt, along with 36 combat sorties from his first tour. He was assigned to No. 7 Squadron at Oakington. Mahaddie's second tour of operations began the evening of the night of 17/18 August 1942, flying the huge four-engined Stirling in a raid against Flensburg.
  The Pathfinder Force was made up of all experienced crews. The primary goal of their operations was to mark targets in advance of the arrival of the main bomber force. There had been a significant amount of resistance within Bomber Command against the formation of the Pathfinder Force. Commanders such as Harris were adamant that there should be no elite unit inside Bomber Command, but proponents such as Group Captain Sidney Bufton prevailed. Harris argued that if a Target Finding Force was formed, each group should have their own squadron, but with the intervention of Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Charles Portal and the Prime Minister Winston Churchill, this idea was rejected as well. The five Groups of bomber command were each required to contribute a squadron of aircraft with crews to make up the PFF. The contributions of the bomber groups were as follows: No. 3 Group gave No. 7 Squadron flying Sterlings, No. 4 Group gave No. 35 Squadron flying Halifaxes, No. 5 Group gave No. 83 Squadron in Avro Lancasters while No. 1 Group gave No. 156 Squadron flying the Vickers Wellington. The fifth squadron, No. 109 Squadron was a special duty  Wireless Intelligence unit which flew a mixture of aircraft and was given the task of jamming of German radio beams and developing wireless and navigational aides for Bomber Command. Thus the PFF initially comprised a mixture of aircraft types, with resultant operational difficulties. Mahaddie was assigned to 7 Squadron and flew the Sterling.
  Initially the four squadron force was sent out to attack targets just as any other bomber force. The group began true Pathfinder raids, dropping marking flares for the main bomber force, in October 1942. The first marker raid was to Krefeld on 2 October 1942. On a number of these raids Mahaddie was the lead bomber, tasked with dropping the first flares over the target. Mahaddie was twice Mentioned in Despatches in 1942. On 1 December 1942 Mahaddie was promoted to wing commander. By the Frankfurt raid on 3 December Mahaddie had completed his fiftieth operation. Over a period of the next eight weeks he was awarded the AFC, a Distinguished Service Order, the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Each had to be wetted by his squadron mates in typical RAF fashion, all on Mahaddie's tab. The various citations included phrases such as, "consistently attacked heavily defended targets with coolness and determination often in adverse weather", "powers of leadership of a very high order", and, "unflagging enthusiasm has had an inspiring effect on his comrades". It is likely that four awards in eight weeks was an RAF record. Mahaddie called it "the most expensive period of my career."
  The Cologne raid of 1/2 February 1943 nearly brought Mahaddie's RAF career to an end. After releasing his target marking flares, the cloud cover that had been providing some protection that night broke up, and his aircraft was hit with flak. At nearly the same time his aircraft was attacked by a Ju 88 night-fighter, which raked its 
caption: A Lancaster warms up its engines prior to a raid
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