RAF 34: Short Stirling BK716 HA-J (Revised Edition)
THE HARRIS CREW
There is a stunning Memorial in the town of Almere just outside Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A young airman sits and reflects on what has just happened, his seat being the mangled wreckage of one his aircraft’s engines, the mighty Short Stirling of Royal Air Force Bomber Command.
His reflection is sombre. He knows that he and his crew have crossed beyond. But his Stirling was more than just a plane to him and his crew. It was their home whenever they took to the skies. They had fought together, and as always, She had done her damndest to keep them all safe.
Was it really just a few hours ago that they had taken off, fully laden, to attack the heart of that man’s empire, Berlin?
Downham Market seems a long time ago now…
This brief article enables us to see the beauty of art and sculpture, the incredible detail of the engineer’s mind, the designer’s mind, when creating this stunning memorial.
It is a memorial to all who lost their lives, and eighty years on, I tend to say “on all sides.” This became very evident in 2022 when we began to realise that the unlawful invasion of Ukraine was not only killing Ukrainians. Soon, thousands of poorly-trained Russian conscript soldiers were also losing their lives, to enforce an operation that, if correctly called a war by anyone in Russia, resulted imprisonment. For every Ukrainian killed, ten Russians are killed. That is the chilling statistic.
A Flight of Short Stirlings over Cambridgeshire.
The Harris Crew
Short Stirling Mk III BK716 HA-J
218 Squadron
RAF Downham Market
F/O J F Harris
Sgt R Kennedy
F/O H G Farrington RCAF
Sgt C A Bell
P/O J M Campbell
Sgt L R Shrubsall
Sgt J F J McCaw RCAF
The W R Chorley War Record (1943 Volume 4) confirms that BK716 took off from RAF Downham Market , Norfolk.
All crew were lost, and the Chorley Record is brief.
All are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Chorley War Record (Volume 4) was published in 1996.
Thus, to discover this on Twitterfeed this morning, 18 May 2023, when searching for anything relating to the Short Stirling aircraft, was a wonderful moment.
I therefore leave Battlefields Experience (@battlefieldsexp) to close this RAF paper off.
1:2 This superb monument is in Almere, near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Partly made with the engine of Short Stirling BK716 from 218 (Gold Coast) Sqn that was salvaged from the Markermeer. It flew from RAF Downham Market, Norfolk.
2:2 Amongst the wreckage were the remains of the crew (5 x British and 2 x Canadian) who will be buried in Jonkerbos Military cemetery today.
I am so pleased that the remains of the Harris Crew have been found and are now at rest in Jonkerbos Military Cemetery,
Part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), the Jonkerbos War Cemetery and Memorial is located in the town of Nijmegen, Netherlands. The cemetery contains 1,643 British Commonwealth and foreign service personnel of World War II. It was built to a design by Commission architect Philip Hepworth.
22 February 2024
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First publised 18 May 2023