INTRODUCTION

Warrant Officer Schrader had told Florence Morgan's mum that when he found Charlie there wasn't a mark on him; but she always wondered whether he had been telling the truth or just sparing her the reality.  Many years later her mum died still wondering. 

Florence never forgot the story and what the Australian navigator had told her mum about the circumstances surrounding her brother's death; but there was no way to prove or disprove his explanation of how Charlie had died. In due course Florence told her daughter Carol about Uncle Charlie having died along with three of his crew when his aircraft had been shot down during the war. Inevitably she was also told of the Australian's visit to Carol's Grandma and the ensuing nagging doubt as to whether he had been telling the truth or just being kind. 

Carol soon found herself searching for an answer if only to give her mum some peace of mind, but alas, she met with no success. 

Finally in 2015 there was a breakthrough and Florence, after 70 years of doubt, at last received irrefutable evidence of how her brother had died. 

On 27 May 1943 F/O. Charles Harrison and the crew of Lancaster ED804 AR-Z took off from RAF Binbrook on a mission to bomb Essen. Despite reporting an unserviceable gun turret the pilot and his crew were ordered to carry on, their aircraft being later shot down by a Luftwaffe night fighter over Holland. The pilot and three of his crew were killed whilst the three surviving crew members were captured and sent to prisoner of war camps. The stories of the pilot, the crew members and their ultimate demise is told here using letters, documents, photographs and much, very personal information, kindly made available to Aircrew Remembered by the families of the pilot, Flying Officer Charles Harrison and the navigator Warrant Officer William Guthrie Schrader together with 460 (RAAF) squadron records and documents in the National Archives of Australia.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1    Letters from America - First Impressions

CHAPTER 2    Letters From America - Snap Rolls, Slow Rolls, Loops, Stalls and Spins

CHAPTER 3    Home Again

CHAPTER 4    Charlie's Crew

CHAPTER 5    Operational with 460 (RAAF) Squadron

CHAPTER 6    Essen

CHAPTER 7    A Wartime Log (William G. Schrader's account of the crew's last mission)

CHAPTER 8    The Crash Site

CHAPTER 9     Prisoners of War

CHAPTER 10    Aftermath

Conclusion

Credits and Acknowledgements

RW 04.10.2015