CREW MEMBER PROFILE

Surname:

WARD

First Name/s:

Harold Edward

Service No/s:

1596140

Service:

RAFVR

Branch:

Air Gunner

Awards:

1939-1945 Star, France & Germany Star, 1939-1945 War Medal

Return

SERVICE RECORDS

Date

Event

Aircraft Flown

31 Aug 1943

Enlisted at No. 9 Aviation Candidates Selection Board (ACSB), Doncaster, Yorkshire, as Aircraftman Second Class (AC2), mustering as Aircrew Hand/ Air Gunner (ACH/AG). Recommended for training as an Air Gunner. There is a note on his record stating that was ‘not to be remustered for ground service during flying training without reference to the Air Ministry’

01 Sep 1943

Transferred to the Reserve, pending call-up.

21 Sep 1943

Recommended for training as Air Gunner.

28 Feb 1944

Called up to No. 3 Air Crew Reception Centre (ACRC), Lord’s Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood, London.

18 Mar 1944

No. 14 Initial Training Wing (ITW), Bridlington, Yorkshire (renumbered No.18 ITW on 25 March 1944).

01 Apr 1944

No. 82 Wing (unit and date n/k).

21 Apr 1944

No. 81 (poss) (Signals) Wing, Worcester, Worcestershire (tbc).

27 May 1944

No. 10 Air Gunners School (AGS), Walney Island, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire (Anson). Regraded to Class ‘B’.

15 Jul 1944

Awarded Air Gunner’s flying badge, promoted to Sgt, and remustered as Air Gunner.

01 Aug 1944

No. 28 Operational Training Unit (OTU), Wymeswold, Leicestershire; joins R R J Young crew

Wellington

15 Oct 1944

Nos. 11/71 Base, Lindholme, Yorkshire; administrative Base for Nos. 1 & 7 Group heavy bomber conversions.

16 Oct 1944

No. 1662 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU), Blyton, Lincolnshire.

Lancaster

19 Dec 1944

Joined No. 576 Squadron, 'B' Flight at Fiskerton, Linconshire

Lancaster

14 Feb 1945

Dresden; lost in PD232 UL-O2, aged 19
Mid-air collision in the early hours of 14 Feb 45, enroute to the target with 405 Sqn, PB183 LQ-C, both aircraft fell to earth 3 miles apart at Remlingen and Wurzberg. O2 possibly came down in Wilsdufferstrasse, Inner Altstadt, Dresden. Only survivor was the pilot of LQ-C.
Initially buried in Remlingen Civil Cemetery but later reinterred on 10 Oct 47 at Durnbach War Cemetery, plot 1.J.6

Lancaster

576 Squadron FLYING RECORDS

Date

Aircraft

Code

Flight Details

T/O

Land

Flt Time

Crew

07 Jan 1945

NG273

UL-Y2

MUNICH

1840

0310

8h30

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: Industrial and transport areas. Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 1320x 4lb incendiaries

15 Jan 1945

ME801

UL-N2

ZEITZ - TROGLITZ

1745

0135

7h50

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: Braunkohle-Benzin synthetic oil plant (low grade MT oil). Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 12x 500lb bombs. Involved in combat with an unidentified aircraft - no claim made.

22 Jan 1945

PD232

UL-O2

DUISBERG

1645

2200

5h15

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: Steelwork coking ovens & rolling mills in the Hamborn area of the city and a benzol plant in Bruckhausen. Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 16x 500lb bombs.

01 Feb 1945

PD232

UL-O2

LUDWIGSHAFEN

1600

2240

6h40

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: Marshalling yards, factories and enemy troop positions. Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 1620x 4lb incendiaries

02 Feb 1945

PD232

UL-O2

WIESBADEN

2035

0310

6h35

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: Built-up area where large amounts of enemy troops were resting. Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 1604x 4lb incendiaries

07 Feb 1945

PD232

UL-O2

KLEVE

1910

0015

5h05

P1   Fg Off A.H. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: Enemy strongpoints. Flown in support of the 1st Canadian Army and the 15th Scottish Division attacking the town. Load: 1x 4000lb ‘cookie’, 16 x 500lb bombs.

07 Feb 1945

PD232

UL-O2

KLEVE

1910

0015

5h05

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: Enemy strongpoints. Flown in support of the 1st Canadian Army and the 15th Scottish Division attacking the town. Load: 1x 4000lb ‘cookie’, 16 x 500lb bombs

08 Feb 1945

PD232

UL-O2

POLITZ

1905

0405

9h00

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Target: The IG Farben synthetic oil plant. AP: 5333.5N 01444.5E. Load: 1x 4000lb ‘cookie’, 10x 500lb bombs.

13 Feb 1945

PD232

UL-O2

DRESDEN

2125

FTR

uk

P1   Fg Off R.R.J. Young
P2   
FE   Sgt K.G. Greathead
AB   Fg Off H.N. Cheeseman
NAV  Sgt G.R. James
WOp  Sgt D.P. Bannister
MUG  Sgt H.E. Ward
RG   Sgt E.W. Webb

NOTES:

Operation THUNDERCLAP. Target: built-up area. Load: 1x 4000lb ‘cookie’, 1180x 4lb incendiaries. At 2125 on the evening of 13 Feb 1945 Roland Young's Lancaster PD232 (UL-O2) took off from Fiskerton to attack the German city of Dresden as part of Operation THUNDERCLAP. The bomber Main Force route took them over the English Channel at Beachy Head to Boulogne then behind Allied lines to a position south of Strasburg where Main Force Lancasters turned North East towards Leipzig. At about 0100 a villager noted that he saw two aircraft collide over the lower Saxony village of Remlingen, 17 Km North of Wurzburg. Both aircraft were travelling in a north-easterly direction when they collided and en-route to the target. Records indicate that the two Lancasters were PD232 and PB183 (LQ-C) of 405 (Pathfinder) Sqn from Gransden Lodge. PB183 was probably a ʺbacker upʺ flying in the Main Force Bomber stream and carrying Target Indicators to reinforce the initial marking. As the aircraft impacted the ground, their bomb loads exploded making craters some 6m wide and scattering their wreckage over a distance of 1 km. The mid-air explosion caused part of one of the Lancasters to be blown 5km northwards where it came down near the village of Birkenfeld. The wreckage continued to burn for several hours and a Luftwaffe detachment arrived from Wurtzburg to guard the wreckage. The Burgermeister stated that he saw 5 engines in the wreckage, but no more. All Young’s crew perished and were buried initially, along with four of the 405 Sqn crew, in the village graveyard of Remlingen. The two Air Gunners, Ward and Webb were only 19 years old. The pilot of the 405 Sqn Lancaster had bailed out and was captured; his crew were carrying an eighth crew member, who also perished. The bodies of four of his crew were never recovered and are remembered on the Runnymede memorial. In Oct 1947 the bodies of the crew were identified in Remlingen village graveyard by Fg Off Bickerton leading a No.3 MREU search team tracing the whereabouts of downed aircrew. They were exhumed and reburied at the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery at Dürnbach.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Details

Harold Ward was born on August 22, 1925, in St. George's, Barnsley, Yorkshire, to Bruce Ward (1882–1961) and Harriet Hennetta Tansey (1887–1936). He was the youngest of his parents' three children, with older siblings Margaret E. (b. 1915) and John (b. 1917). A third brother, Frank, was born in 1923 but may have died in infancy the following year.
 
Harold's early life was marked by tragedy when his mother passed away in 1936. Following her death, he was taken in by his aunt, Mrs. Mary Kathleen Bullough, his mother's sister. He later lived with his cousin, Dorothy Margaret Demaine (née Bullough), and her husband, Robert Dawson Demaine.
 
Meanwhile, his father, Bruce, remarried in 1938 to Alice Clegg, and by 1946 they were living at 20 Park Grove, Barnsley.
 
During the war, Harold was employed as a general farm hand working for his relatives, a role designated as a "reserved occupation" to support the vital agricultural sector. Despite this he volunteered for flying duties in the air force, where he was killed during operations over enemy territory in 1945.

PHOTOS & DOCUMENTS

Details

R R J Young and crew

Harold Edward Ward

Chipchase

Harold (on left) with relative?

Chipchase

Harold's medals

Chipchase

Harold's grave

CWGC

King's message to Harold's father Bruce Ward

Shipley Times March 1945

Shipley Times