Pathfinders over Hamburg
\nby cricketjeff on September 8, 2018.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nThe navigator’s face is eerie green,
\nHis pencil dances lightly on his chart,
\nAlthough the target cannot yet be seen
\nHe tells the crew the bombing run must start.<\/p>\n
With forty Merlins roaring on and on;
\nStaccato guns supplying deadly rain.
\nAnd straight and true the Lancasters plough on
\nTill marker bombs and flares have left the plane.<\/p>\n
It lurches right, first climbing then a dive
\nRear gunner calls our markers are alight
\nThe master bomber signals “Reds are live”
\nBut we’re already heading through the night.<\/p>\n
Mid upper says that Charlie’s caught some flack
\nBut he can see six others heading back.<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\n Author notes
\nMy Uncle did two full tours as a navigator in a pathfinder Lancaster. Staring
\nat dim green screens of the new magical aiming systems and dead reckoning the
\npath home after dropping markers for the main force close behind. (forty
\nMerlins represent ten 4-engined Lancaster bombers, the Master Bomber in a
\nMosquito checks which colour flares are on target and calls on the main force,
\nto bomb those markers. Once the first thirty or forty planes have dropped their
\nincendiaries there will be no more need for markers)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pathfinders over Hamburg by cricketjeff on September 8, 2018.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved The navigator’s face is eerie green, His pencil dances lightly on his chart, Although the target cannot yet be seen He tells the crew the bombing run must start. With forty Merlins roaring on and on; Staccato guns supplying deadly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9734,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5660","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5848,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5660\/revisions\/5848"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}