W Harrison’s Royal Air Force Flying Log Book for Navigators, Air Bombers, Air Gunners, Flight Engineers

W Harrison’s Royal Air Force Flying Log Book for Navigators, Air Bombers, Air Gunners, Flight Engineers

W Harrison’s Flying Log Book from 4th July 1944 until 20th March 1947. During this time trained as a flight engineer at No. 4 School of Technical Training. Further training at No. 1 Engine Control and Demonstration Unit, 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit, No. 5 Lancaster Finishing School before an operational posting to 9 Squadron in July 1944.
In January 1945 posted with 9 Squadron to India returning to the UK in April 1946.

Served at RAF St Athan, RAF Worksop, RAF Winthorpe, RAF Syerston, RAF Bardney, RAF Waddington, RAF Salbani (India), RAF Binbrook, RAF Lindholme.

Aircraft flown were Stirling, Lancaster, C-47 Dakota, Lincoln, Anson, Tiger Moth, Oxford, Polikarpov U-2.

With 9 Squadron, Harrison flew a total of 33 bombing operations (19 day and 16 night). He also flew one Cook’s Tour to Germany and six Operation Dodge to Bari. His pilot on all occasions was Flight Lieutenant Laws.
His bombing targets were Joigny-la-Roche, Mont Candon, Bois de Cassan, Trossy, Etaples, Lorient, La Pallice, Dortmund-Ems Canal, Karlsruhe, the Sorpe Dam, Nuremberg, the Tirpitz, Munich, the Urft Dam, Munich, Gdynia, Horten in the Oslo Fjord, Bergen, Brux, Ijmuiden, Sassnitz, Harburg, Arnsberg, Vlotho, Nienburg, Bremen, Pilsen, Helgoland, Berchtesgaden.
On the 11th September 1944, his aircraft was ferrying Tallboy bombs to Russia for an operation against the Tirpitz. His aircraft crash landed at Vescover [Veshchevo?] in Russia. The crew returned to the UK on the 12th September after being transferred via a Polikarpov U-2 aircraft via Vladivostok.

On 1st March 1946 whilst rehearsing for an air display in India, a vulture flew through the aircraft’s windscreen knocking the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Laws, unconscious. Harrison kept the aircraft flying until the pilot regained consciousness and could take back control, landing safely.

This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.

One booklet

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

SAudisRJ[Ser#-DoB]v010012