LEST WE FORGET

Flight Lieutenant Leonard Keith HARRIS

Service No: 403736
Born: Sydney NSW, 6 December 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 3 March 1916
Unit: No. 8 Operational Training Unit
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 8 Operational Training Unit Kittyhawk aircraft A29-349), near Parkes, 21 August 1945, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Parkes General Cemetery, NSW
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Aubrey Gladstone Harris and Rebecca Jane Harris, of Sydney; husband of Patricia Jean Harris, of Elizabeth Bay
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 112, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT

On 21 August 1945, Kittyhawk A29-349 flown by Flight Lieutenant Harris crashed at 1030 hours at Parkes aerodrome during a forced landing on a training flight. He had been detailed to carry out an air to ground gunnery exercise at the gunnery range. Just after take-off, he turned back to the aerodrome, and while attempting to make a forced landing on the crosswind runway, the aircraft overshot and ran through a fence striking a stump, and the aircraft burst into flames.

References:

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/17/1385; A9845, 10

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

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