Harry John Strange

Harry John Strange was born in Birkenhead on 25 April 1923, the eldest of a large family; after his parents separated he moved to London with his mother, whose second husband, Robert Lynn, adopted him. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1941, shortly after his eighteenth birthday, and trained as an air gunner the following year before passing through 1660 Conversion Unit and joining No. 207 Squadron on 11 November 1942. There he flew operationally, usually as mid-upper gunner, becoming part of the crew captained by Pilot Officer Warner “Bill” Ottley, and in early 1943 the crew was posted to the newly formed No. 617 Squadron to train for the attack on the German dams. On the night of 16/17 May 1943, during Operation Chastise, Sergeant Strange flew as front gunner of Lancaster ED910 (AJ-C), one of the reserve-wave aircraft; outbound over Germany the aircraft was hit by flak and crashed near Hamm in the early hours of 17 May, killing Strange and five of his crewmates, with only rear gunner Fred Tees surviving as a prisoner of war. He was twenty years old. Originally buried by the Germans at Hamm, he was reinterred after the war in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany, where he lies in Plot 31, Row F, Grave 13.