Sidney Osborne Bufton
b: 12 Jan 1908
d: 29 Mar 1993
14 Nov 1941
eputy Director of Bomber Operations.
10 Mar 1943
irector of Bomber Operations
Sid Bufton was a bomber specialist. Having commanded two bomber squadrons in the early part of WW2, one of them being the first to be equipped with the four engined Halifax, he joined the Directorate of Bomber Operations at the Air Ministry and remained there for the rest of the war in Europe. His practical experience as an operational pilot, clearly brought home to him the problems being experienced by the average squadron pilot serving with Bomber Command at that time. Long before he arrived at the Air Ministry, he had suggested the need to utilize the more experienced and skilled crews in locating and marking targets for the benefit of the majority. As Deputy Director of Bomber Operations, he started to put his ideas forwards but any form of elite or specialized unit was anathema to Sir Arthur Harris, C in C Bomber Command.
In 1942 the Pathfinder Force was born.
Gp Capt Sydney Bufton in 1941 suggested that six squadrons should be based close to each other, their aircrews enriched with 40 of Command's most highly experienced crews. But the new AOC-in-C, Air Marshal Arthur Harris, condemmed such a scheme as likely to foster elitisme and hence ruin morale. He preferred the idea of making one squadron in each group the "target finder". Further up the hierarchy, though, the pendulum of opinion swung back again, and Harris received orders from Churchill, through the Chief of Air Staff, to create a new force.
Thus, on August 15, 1942, the Pathfinder Force came into existence.
During his tenure at the Air Ministry, he was to often find himself at odds with the C in C, who disliked what he considered to the be the interference of bureaucrats and he considered Bufton to be his prime antagonist. But the formation of The Pathfinders was not Bufton's only achievement. Before the war, he had been a Welsh International Hockey player (1931 - 37) as well as playing for the RAF and the Combined Services. Retiring from the RAF, he joined Radionic Ltd as an inventor and later became Managing Director until 1970.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWpathfinder.htm
http://www.surreywap.co.uk/Pathfinder/hist.htm
http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Bufton.htm
