Nationally Important Gold Caterpillar Club Badge and Log Books of Air Vice Marshall Donald Bennett CB, CBE, DSO, Royal Air Force, Commander of the Pathfinder Force During WW2, Caterpillar Club badge in gold with ruby eyes, reverse engraved ‘WC/CDR D C T BENNETT’. Brooch pin fitting to the reverse. Accompanying the badge are eight original Royal Air Force and Civilian Flying Log Books belonging to Bennett, the log books cover pre-war, wartime and post war period. The logs cover his time training with the RAF and also his time serving with the Imperial Airways. The most interesting from a wartime period is his civilian log book titled as ‘4’, this log has the entry on 27th April 1942, which states he was ‘Shot down low level attack on Tirpitz’ and the last entry in the log on 5th July 1942, ‘Appointed to Command Path Finder Force’. The logs are well filled out with many interesting details, including his involvement in the Berlin Airlift. eing sold by direct family descent of Air Vice Marshall Bennett. onald Bennett was born the youngest son of a grazier and business agent in Queensland, Australia. He attended Brisbane Grammar School. After some time working in his father’s business, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1930, qualifying at RAAF Point Crook as a pilot. He transferred to the RAF a year later. Starting with the flying Boats of no 210 Squadron. Bennett developed a passion for accurate flying and precise navigation that would never leave him. After a period as an instructor, he left the service in 1935, retaining a reserve commission, to join Imperial Airways. Over the next five years, Bennett specialised in long-distance flights, breaking a number of records and pioneering techniques which would later become commonplace, notably air to air refuelling. In July 1938 he piloted the Mercury part of the Short Mayo Composite flying-boat across the Atlantic; this flight earned him the Oswald Watt Gold Medal for that year.uring 1940 Bennett was involved in setting up the Atlantic Ferry Crossing, bringing many aircraft over from the USA to the UK. In 1941 he was recommissioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Squadron Leader. Promoted to Wing Commander, he was posted to command No77 Squadron, as part of Bomber Command. In April 1942, No. 77 Squadron was transferred to Coastal Command and Bennett was given command of No. 10 Squadron (Handley Page Halifax) and shortly afterwards led a raid on the German battleship Tirpitz. Shot down during that raid, he evaded capture and escaped to Sweden, from where he was able to return to Britain; he and his copilot were awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 16 June 1942. It was for this raid on the Tirpitz which resulted in the award of the Caterpillar Club badge. n July 1942, Bennett was appointed to command the new Pathfinder Force (PFF), an elite unit tasked with improving RAF Bomber Command’s navigation. At this stage of the war, Bomber Command had begun to make night-time raids deep into Germany, but had not yet been able to cause significant damage, largely because only about a quarter of the bomb loads were delivered “on target” — and this at a time when “on target” was defined as within three miles of the aim point. Bennett was called to Bomber Command HQ when he was on the point of leaving with his squadron for the Middle East. There he was informed by Sir Arthur Harris (Bomber Harris), that he was to lead a special force to make use of the new bombing and navigational aids then available and the more sophisticated ones that would follow. With effect from 5 July he was promoted to group captain. In 1943 Bennett was promoted with the upgrading of PFF to group status to air commodore, and then in December to acting air vice marshal, the youngest ever to hold that rank, giving him a rank similar to those of the other commanders of groups. He remained in command of the Pathfinder Force until the end of the war, overseeing its growth to an eventual 19 squadrons, a training flight and a meteorological flight, working relentlessly to improve its standards, and tirelessly campaigning for better equipment, in particular for more Mosquitos and Lancasters to replace the diverse assortment of often obsolete aircraft with which the force started.