Harris, Wilfred Gordon

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Personal Information

Rank Sgt
Forename(s) Wilfred Gordon
Surname Harris
Gender M
Age 23
Date of Death 23-05-1944
Next of Kin Son of William Henry Harris and Bertha Harris (née Maynes), of Dufferin County , Ontario, Canada. Husband of Dorothy Gwendolyn Harris (née Leach), whom he married at Vancouver on 17 July 1942.
HARRIS WG

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V
Serial Number AD701
Markings TY-B

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country France
Burial/Memorial Place Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery
Grave Reference XXVII. G. 4-7 (Coll.)
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 1
Panel Number 46

Enlistment Information

Service Number R/115064
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 91
Squadron 24 OTU
Trade Air Gunner
Country of Origin Canada

Miscellaneous Information

Wilfred was born at Dufferin County , Ontario on 12 August 1920. His father was born at Elora, Ontario and worked as a Trackman for CPR and his mother, who was deceased by the time of Wilfred's enlistment, was born at Oshawa, Ontario. He attended Alton Public School between 1926-1936, followed by Alton Continuation School 1936-1937. The sports he enjoyed were skiing, hockey and swimming. Wilfred worked as a storekeeper at Grand Valley 1938-1940 and was then unemployed until enlisting on 11 July 1941.
After enlisting and initial training he was posted to the U.K. and embarked from Canada on 5 March 1944. He arrived at 3 PRC on 15 March 1944 then continued to 24 OTU on 21 March 1944. Sadly Wilfred then lost his life on 23 May 1944.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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Fellow Servicemen

Please note that this list gives all the losses aboard the quoted aircraft and occasionally these may have occurred on an earlier date when the aircraft was not itself lost. Please check the dates of death carefully.

Goodwin D W (F/O)
Hong J (F/O)
Hopper J (Sgt)
Jacques J G (WO1)
Wyckoff C B (F/O)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 22-05-1944
End Date 23-05-1944
Takeoff Station Long Marston
Day/Night Raid Night (1% moon)
Operation Nickel
Reason for Loss Tasked to drop leaflets in the Alencon area, the Whitley is believed to have been shot down by flak, crashing near Sees, close to the target area

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Casualty Pack

IBCC is delighted to introduce a unique facility to link the Losses Database to the relevant RAF Casualty Pack on the National Archives website. This project is the result of on-going collaboration between IBCC, the MOD Records Office and National Archives, Kew. This document describes what Casualty Packs are, when they were created, the process of making them available to the public and then goes on to describe the process by which you can view the contents of the packs. Casualty Packs (CPs) were created by the RAF whenever there was serious injury or loss of life associated with operational activity within the RAF. This includes operational flying losses, enemy action due to air raids, road accidents either on station or even off-station if they involved RAF vehicles. Deaths due to natural causes in service or accidents that did not involve RAF vehicles did not generally give rise to a CP.

CPs were originally given a unique reference number by the RAF. Each begins with the letter ‘P’ and is followed by six digits, then an oblique (forward slash) and the finally the year in which the incident took place- for example P396154/42.

The CPs are in the process of being made available to the general public as they are passed from the MOD Records Office, Portsmouth to National Archives, Kew. This process requires some rework to the files which is very time consuming, so the process of making them all available to National Archives will take several years. They are being made available in increasing date order.

Once CPs arrive at National Archives they are assigned a unique AIR81 number, so each CP has both a P-number and an AIR81 number. Both are searchable on the National Archives website under ‘Search the catalogue’ and both are included on the IBCC website.

The AIR81 reference on the IBCC website is a link to the file on the National Archives website. When you click on it, the relevant page will open in a new tab on your browser.

There is currently no plan to digitise AIR81 files, partly because they are fragile and partly because the information they contain can at times be sensitive, even harrowing, since they may contain exhumation reports and even photographs of corpses. Family members wishing to read the AIR81 files relating to their ancestors are advised to exercise caution and be guided by National Archives warnings where appropriate.

There are two means for accessing AIR81 files- to attend in person or to order a copy by post.

To attend in person, the attendee should first create a Reader’s Ticket. This can be done online by following this link: https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/login/yourdetails. Then click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and click Order in Advance. Enter your Reader’s Ticket number and state the date on which you intend to visit. National Archives will have the file ready for you when you arrive, saving you time. When you visit Kew, you must quote the Reader’s Ticket number and take along two forms of ID- one bearing your signature and one bearing your address. When you view the files, you are permitted to take photographs of each page, should you wish.

Alternatively, if you wish to order a copy by post, please be aware that there is a charge for this service based on the number of pages in the file. Click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and then click Request a Copy. There is an £8.40 charge for National Archives staff to access the file and give you a quotation for the copying service. The process takes around 24 days to complete and can be expensive.

IBCC wishes to thank the staff at the MOD Records Office and National Archives for their engagement and assistance in making this facility available to our website users.