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Show Flares Illuminate Targets For British' Night Raids So successful are the RAF Pathfinder Path-finder planes which precede the bombers into Germany and light the target area with flares, that the RAF bomber command now actually actu-ally prefers to attack on moonless nights, reports Kenneth R. Porter, European war correspondent for Flying Magazine. The Pathfinders precede the big RAF night bombing nights, outlining outlin-ing the targets with quick-burning "sky markers." The sky markers are of various kinds. Some are so vividly illuminating that they can be seen at night from the sub-stratosphere through almost complete cloud cover. There are luminous parachute flares, luminous float bombs, flare clusters, mixed colors and ground markers. Combinations of many colors and varied types of flares are used, depending on the target and code for the night. The flares may be discerned through the' heaviest clouds and even smoke screens. Bombardiers might see nothing through their sights but this floating rainbow, and yet so accurate ac-curate is the flare laid down by the Pathfinder that the bombs score perfect per-fect hits. The job of dropping flares calls for marksmanship at least as precise as bombing itself. Under intensive development for two years, the whole Pathfinder technique tech-nique was developed out of an improved im-proved navigational technique which made it possible for navigators to locate their targets so certainly j even on moonless nights that the lVz hours allowed for the whole i bomber force over the target was I reduced to less than 30 minutes. |