Pathfinders (military)
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During World War II, the pathfinders were a group of volunteers selected within the Airborne units who were specially trained to operate navigation aids to guide the main airborne body to the drop zones. The pathfinder teams (sticks) were made up of a group of eight to twelve pathfinders and a group of six bodyguards whose job was to defend the pathfinders while they set up their equipment. The pathfinder teams dropped approximately thirty minutes before the main body in order to locate designated drop zones and provide radio and visual guides for the main force in order to improve the accuracy of the jump. Once the main body jumped, the pathfinders then joined their original units and fought as standard airborne infantry.
After the serious problems uncovered during the parachute drop in the Allied invasion of Sicily, Allied high command questioned the utility of parachute infantry primarily because of the difficulty of dropping the infantry as cohesive units rather than as scattered groups. A review of procedures and methods resulted in the establishment of the pathfinder teams to aid navigation to drop zones. Because aircraft navigation, especially at night, was so difficult, the concept was to create specially trained teams of aircraft crews and parachute infantry that would be able to locate the drop zone, parachute into the drop zone accurately, and then set up special radio beacon sets (the Eureka beacon) and landing lights to help guide the main airborne force to the drop zones. Brightly colored panels and smoke grenades were also used for daytime drops.
Pathfinders were first used in a jump to reinforce units involved in combat in Italy in September of 1943. Pathfinders were involved in the D-Day drop of the Battle of Normandy in June of 1944, the Operation Market Garden drops to secure the bridges required for the ground units advancing into Holland in September 1944, a resupply by air operation of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944, and a resupply by air operation of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division near Briealf, Germany in February of 1945.
Though a number of paratroopers were trained as pathfinders, they did not always jump as pathfinders for all operations. The number of pathfinders for a jump varied depending on the conditions of the destination at the time of the jump. For instance, the D-Day jump for the Battle of Normandy, a night time jump, had more pathfinder teams than the jump for Operation Market Garden, a day time jump. For the Battle of Bastogne, the 101st Airborne Division was trucked to the town for its defense against the attacking German forces. Two sticks of Pathfinders were used when the 101st Airborne was resupplied from the air in order to guide the aircraft dropping the much needed supplies accurately and within the Allied lines.
Pathfinders taking part in the American parachute assault on Normandy on 6 June 1944, were trained by the Pathfinder School at RAF North Witham of which the USAAF designation was Army Air Force Station 479.
At 21.30 hours on 5 June, about 200 pathfinders began to take off from North Witham, for the Cotentin Peninsula, in 20 C-47 aircraft of 9th Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder Group. They began to drop at 00.15 on June 6, to prepare the drop zones for the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. They were the first US troops on the ground on D-Day. However, their aircraft were scattered by low clouds and anti-aircraft fire. Many never found their assigned landing zones. Some of the landing zones were too heavily defended, some were flooded.
The British 6th Airborne Division, which participated in the D-Day drop for the Battle of Normandy used pathfinder teams as did the British 1st Airborne Division during Operation Garden (the parachute infantry portion of Operation Market-Garden).
Pathfinders still exist in a number of armed forces around the world. Pathfinders in the British Army form the Pathfinder Platoon of 16 Air Assault Brigade. The platoon was involved in the Iraq War in 2003.
In the Canadian Forces, airborne pathfinders are an elite group of "quiet professionals" who - in addition to securing drop zones, gathering intelligence and delivering briefings to follow-on forces - also conduct operations ranging from ambushes and reconnaissance behind enemy lines to hostage rescue.
The U.S. Army still maintains a Pathfinder school, and patch, though Pathfinder only units have been eliminated. The school trains soldiers in LZ preparation and signalling.
