
Gwen Thomas obituary: WAAF signals operator with elite RAF Pathfinders
Having trained as a teleprinter operator, she was posted in June 1943 to the signals section of the Pathfinders, an elite unit established the previous August to help Bomber Command to find targets in the dark. They flew ahead of the main force, mainly in Lancaster bombers and more nimble Mosquitoes, dropping coloured flares to mark targets in Nazi Germany that would later be bombed from the air.
Thomas was based at

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