Quest to find lost Shropshire airman's relatives
For weeks the wife of 21-year-old Shropshire airman Wyndham Hadrian Harries clung to the hope that he would be found safe after his bomber failed to return from a raid on Aachen in Germany in the summer of 1943.
Alas, those hopes were to be crushed when the news finally came through that he and the rest of the Halifax crew had all been killed.
And now the Dutch municipality where those seven young men lost their lives has launched an appeal to trace his relatives so that they can be invited to a high-profile ceremony at which a monument will be unveiled in memory of Allied airmen from six planes which were shot down in that area.
Leading the hunt is Peter den Tek, who is chairman of the Airmen Monument Foundation at Giessenlanden.
"On May 2 we are unveiling a monument dedicated to 36 Allied airmen who crashed with their planes in the municipality of Giessenlanden in the Netherlands," said Peter.
It will stand three metres high and will commemorate all those who came down, of whom 14 died – two Americans, one Canadian, and 11 British.
Parents
"Sergeant Harries was one of them," said Mr den Tek. "He was the flight engineer and flew in a Halifax bomber but lost his life when the plane was shot down by a German nightfighter. None of the crew survived. We are looking for relatives of all airmen and I am hoping you could help me.
"Recently I received, from a relative of another crew member, a letter written to them by the parents of W. H. Harries. The Harries' address in Shrewsbury was 'Rangers, Shelton Road, Shrewsbury'."
Anyone with information can contact Peter directly at peter.den.tek@gmail.com by email, or contact us and we will pass the information on.
Sergeant Harries was in Halifax JB801 of 78 Squadron which took off from RAF Breighton in Yorkshire on July 13, 1943, for its fateful last mission.
The squadron's Operations Record Book records: "This aircraft took off at 2333 hours and nothing further has been heard of the crew or the aircraft since. It is therefore presumed missing."
The bomber was shot down by German pilot Karl Heinz Scherfling in a Messerschmitt 110 nightfighter and crashed near the village of Peursum.
Peter said: "After the plane went missing the parents of Sergeant R.W. Rouse, the rear gunner, sent letters to all families of the crew sharing their anxiety but also to show there was still hope. The parents of Sergeant Harries wrote back."
In fact, that letter was written on July 22, 1943, by Sergeant Harries' wife, Phyllis, who said in a letter to Mr Rouse: "Thank you so much for your very kind encouraging letter. I cannot tell you what your letter did for us all. "These are anxious days for us all, but we must have patience. I feel sure that our dear ones are all safe and sound, so we must keep our chins up as you say."
Information on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website says that Harries was the son of John Nevill Harries and Lucy Harries.
The day after the crash members of the Luftwaffe, probably from the Schoonrewoerd radar station, visited the site and had their photo taken in front of the wreck. The soldier who took the photograph gave the film to a local photographer.
