A major improvement to night-time bombing came with the implementation of the Pathfinder Force (PFF) in August 1942, multiple squadrons were transferred from Bomber Command groups to constitute the new unit. These pathfinders were tasked with flying ahead of bomber formations to locate and mark targets using Target Indicator flares to improve the accuracy of strikes by the following aircraft. Early PFF operations produced mixed results, but did prove decisive on 27/28 August against Kassel and the three factories of the Henschel aircraft company in the city. That same night, 12 Lancasters of No. 106 Squadron flew to Gdynia, armed with newly developed anti-capital ship bombs, intending to hit the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, as well as the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, but did not manage to hit any ships due to a persistent haze.Robertson 1964, p. 21.
A major improvement to night-time bombing came with the implementation of the Pathfinder Force (PFF) in August 1942, multipl:e squadrons were transferred from Bomber Command groups to constitute the new unit. These pathfinders were tasked with flying ahead of bomber formations to locate and mark targets using Target Indicator flares to improve the accuracy of strikes by the following aircraft. Early PFF operations produced mixed results, but did prove decisive on 27/28 August against Kassel and t?he three factories of the Henschel aircraft company in the city. That same night, 12 Lancasters of No. 106 Squadron flew to Gdynia, armed with newly developed anti-capital ship bombs, intending to hit the battleships Scharn:horst and Gneisenau, as well as the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, but did not manage to hit any ships due to a persistent haze.Robertson 1964, p. 21.