Cover of the Day 2nd June - Canadian cover to NZ Airman in UK

[Alan Baker]

As the weather is about to turn, I thought it time to post some more Canadian material, as you like it so much!

This cover is postmarked Toronto, 10th Dcember 1943 and is addressed to a Flight Lt from New Zealand, c/o NZ Base Post Office, London. It bears a censor label No 4175 and a hand written redirection to RAF Mildenhall. On the reverse is the stamp of the New Zealand Army Base PO UK, dated 28th December

My assumption with this is that this officer underwent training in Canada as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and was then posted to Mildenhall, which I believe was home to bomber squadrons. Can anyone confirm this and what his specialism was?

[Peter Harvey]

Alan,

Sometimes Google alone is enough to turn up all you need, but sadly there is not a great ending for many military personnel:

Flt Lt Willis Mark Harris RNZAF, trained in Canada and graduated  3/07/1942.

Sadly died 1944 aged 23 flying over Germany with 15 Squadron, the following links will give the details:

https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C25549

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2201448/harris,-willis-mark/

Regards

[Alan Baker]

I tried a googly search and found nothing! Many thanks for your help

[Nick Colley]

And occasionally a good old paper book can fill in some details  :) - in this case Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, by WG Chorley, the 1944 volume.

15 Squadron was based at Mildenhall (hence the original re-direction). Harris's aircraft (a Lancaster III) took off at 17h25 on February 15th. on a mission to Berlin. It crashed in the Baltic off Hiddensee, an island NW of Rugen. All the crew were killed. On 26th May, Harris's body was found on the island near the village of Neuendorf. He was initially buried locally, but his grave is now in Berlin at the city's 1939045 War Cemetry. His crew are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

The night of the 15th-16th February 1944 was not a good night for Bomber Command. 49 of the aircraft sent to Berlin failed to return.

chrs
N

[Alan Baker]

(Un)fortunately, my "library" is almost exclusively WWI.

[Nick Colley]

Geographical amendment:

There is no village/town called Neuendorf on Hiddensee. The nearest such town is about 50 kms south west of the island. It is on the mainland, but on the shore of the Saaler Bodden, a large lagoon on the north German coast. Google Maps shows that it has a VERY narrow opening to the Baltic proper, so how poor Willis's body ended up there if he crashed in the sea off Hiddensee is a mystery.

Anyway, Chorley's probably pretty good on his RAF operations, but maybe not so hot on his geography  ;)

chrs
N