Low Level Bombsight, Mark III use in October 1942. Coastal Command had priority on deliveries and only small numbers reached Bomber Command. The first examples arrived in May 1943 and were fit to Douglas Boston bombers of 2 Group. In 1944 the sight was trialled on the Avro Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron RAF, the Dambusters, who carried out a single low-level attack with them in late 1944. Most examples sent to Bomber Command equipped a small number of De Havilland Mosquito aircraft in No. 627 Squadron RAF (who normally operated as pathfinders) and No. 8 Group RAF (Pathfinder Force). The sight remained with Coastal
RAF Manston Others included RAF Greenham Common, RAF Aldergrove and RAF Machrihanish. For a number of years, the base operated as a Master Diversion Airfield, open 24 hours every day. Manston, uniquely in the UK, also had a 'foam carpet' crash landing system, where two tractors would pull tankers laying a metre thick layer of foam over a strip of runway, for aircraft with landing gear problems. RAF Manston was home to a helicopter search and rescue (SAR) flight from No. 22 Squadron RAF from 1961, operating Westland Whirlwind aircraft. The flight was withdrawn in 1969, but the outcry led to the