LEST WE FORGET
Warrant Officer George Albert HARRIS
Service No: 404606
Born: Sydney NSW, 7 November 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 October 1940 (at Brisbane QLD)
Unit: No. 1657 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Stradishall, Suffolk
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1657 Conversion Unit Stirling aircraft R9249), Herefordshire, 22 October 1943, Aged 27Years
Buried: Oxford (Botley) Cemetery, Oxfordshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Thomas Burroughs Harris and Florence Harris, of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 123, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 22 October 1943, Stirling R9249 took off from Stradishall detailed to carry out a special navigation exercise. The aircraft crashed at 2054 hours while attempting to land on three engines at Chipping Warden. Weather conditions in the area were poor, and it was thought that the crew mistook the airfield’s perimeter track for the runway. In its final seconds of the flight, the aircraft hit a tree and the roofs of two houses in the nearby village of Aston le Walls before finishing up on the north side of the aerodrome. Four of the crew were killed in the crash and three were injured.
The crew members of R9249 were:
Sergeant Sidney Frederick Cowcher (1863808) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Gregory Terence Duane (425622) (Air Gunner) Injured, Died 23 October 1942
Sergeant R A Gausden (1337270) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner) Injured
Warrant Officer George Albert Harris (404606) (Pilot)
Sergeant Geoffrey Percival McCallum (423167) (Air Gunner) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 24 April 1945
Flight Sergeant Karl Riep (R/140266) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer James William Whitehouse (138340) (RAF) (Navigator)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/17/352
Bibliography:
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002