CREW MEMBER PROFILE |
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Surname: |
CHEESEMAN |
First Name/s: |
Harold Norman |
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Service No/s: |
(1620839) 162260 |
Service: |
RAFVR |
Branch: |
Air Bomber |
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Awards: |
1939-1945 Star, France & Germany Star, 1939-1945 War Medal |
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SERVICE RECORDS |
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Date |
Event |
Aircraft Flown |
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15 Dec 1941 |
Attended No. 2 Aviation Candidates’ Selection Board (2 ACSB) at the Old Clarendon Laboratories, Parks Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire, where he was recommended for training as a Pilot, later the same day, he enlisted at St Michael’s Hall, Shoe Lane, Oxford, as Aircraftman Second Class (AC2) and mustered as Air Crew Hand (Pilot). |
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16 Dec 1941 |
Transferred to the Reserve, pending call-up. |
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06 Jul 1942 |
Called up to No. 1 Air Crew Reception Centre (1 ACRC), Lord’s Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood, London. |
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24 Aug 1942 |
Promoted to Leading Aircraftman (LAC), remustering as Cadet Pilot, and embarked UK for Southern Rhodesia (port & vessel n/k) |
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01 Oct 1942 |
No. 1 Initial Training Wing (1 ITW), Hillside, Bulawayo, Matabeleland, Southern Rhodesia |
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14 Jan 1943 |
No. 28 Elementary Flying Training School (28 EFTS), Mount Hampden, Salisbury, Mashonaland. |
Tiger Moth |
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28 Mar 1943 |
Appointed Acting S/O (acronym n/k). |
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01 Apr 1943 |
No. 23 Service Flying Training School (23 SFTS), Heany, Bulawayo, Matabeleland. Exact date not known. |
Oxford |
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19 Apr 1943 |
Withdrawn from flying training, resuming the rank of Leading Aircraftman (LAC), and remustered as under training Air Bomber. |
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21 Apr 1943 |
No. 24 Combined Air Observer School (24 CAOS), Moffat, Gwelo, Midlands. |
Battle/Oxford/Anson |
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14 Jun 1943 |
No. 48 Air School, Woodbrook, East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa; elementary air navigation training. |
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24 Jun 1943 |
Reclassified as Aircraftman Second Class (AC2). |
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21 Oct 1943 |
No. 42 Air School, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape; air navigator training. |
Anson |
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25 Nov 1943 |
Joined No. 576 Squadron, 'B' Flight at Fiskerton, Lincolnshire. |
Lancaster |
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04 Feb 1944 |
Discharged on appointment to a Commission. |
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05 Feb 1944 |
Commissioned as Plt Off on probation (emergency) from LAC (LG 04 Apr 44, p1542), awarded Air Bomber’s (B) brevet, and remustered as Air Bomber. |
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18 Feb 1944 |
Date? – Embarked Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (vessel n/k) |
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19 Feb 1944 |
No. 7 Personnel Reception Centre (7 PRC), Spa Hotel, Harrogate, Yorks (using the Spa, Majestic, Queen, Adelphi, and Cecil Hotels for accommodation). |
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06 Jun 1944 |
No. 4 (Observer) Advanced Flying Unit (4 (O) AFU), West Freugh, Wigtownshire, Scotland. |
Anson |
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01 Aug 1944 |
No. 28 Operational Training Unit (28 OTU), Wymeswold, Leicestershire; joins R R J Young crew. |
Wellington |
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05 Aug 1944 |
Promoted to Flying Officer (war substantive) (London Gazette, 25 Aug 44). |
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15 Oct 1944 |
Nos. 11/71 Base, Lindholme, Yorkshire; administrative Base for Nos. 1 & 7 Group heavy bomber conversions. |
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16 Oct 1944 |
No. 1662 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU), Blyton, Lincolnshire . |
Lancaster |
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576 Squadron FLYING RECORDS |
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Date |
Aircraft |
Code |
Flight Details |
T/O |
Land |
Flt Time |
Crew |
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07 Jan 1945 |
NG273 |
UL-Y2 |
MUNICH |
1840 |
0310 |
8h30 |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
NOTES: |
Target: Industrial and transport areas. Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 1320x 4lb incendiaries |
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15 Jan 1945 |
ME801 |
UL-N2 |
ZEITZ - TROGLITZ |
1745 |
0135 |
7h50 |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
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. |
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22 Jan 1945 |
PD232 |
UL-O2 |
DUISBERG |
1645 |
2200 |
5h15 |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
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. |
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01 Feb 1945 |
PD232 |
UL-O2 |
LUDWIGSHAFEN |
1600 |
2240 |
6h40 |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
NOTES: |
Target: Marshalling yards, factories and enemy troop positions. Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 1620x 4lb incendiaries |
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02 Feb 1945 |
PD232 |
UL-O2 |
WIESBADEN |
2035 |
0310 |
6h35 |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
NOTES: |
Target: Built-up area where large amounts of enemy troops were resting. Load: 1x 4000lb 'cookie', 1604x 4lb incendiaries |
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07 Feb 1945 |
PD232 |
UL-O2 |
KLEVE |
1910 |
0015 |
5h05 |
P1 Fg Off A.H. Young |
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. |
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07 Feb 1945 |
PD232 |
UL-O2 |
KLEVE |
1910 |
0015 |
5h05 |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
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 |
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08 Feb 1945 |
PD232 |
UL-O2 |
POLITZ |
1905 |
0405 |
9h00 |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
NOTES: |
Target: The IG Farben synthetic oil plant. AP: 5333.5N 01444.5E. Load: 1x 4000lb ‘cookie’, 10x 500lb bombs. |
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13 Feb 1945 |
PD232 |
UL-O2 |
DRESDEN |
2125 |
FTR |
uk |
P1 Fg Off R.R.J. Young |
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. |
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PERSONAL INFORMATION |
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Details |
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Harold Norman Cheeseman was born in the Surrey town of Brookwood on February 13, 1920, son of Walter H. Cheeseman and Edith James. He grew up alongside his older brothers, Leslie William (1912 – 1965) and Gerald William (1917 – 1992).
Before enlisting in the service, Harold worked for the manufacturing firm James Walker & Co., Woking which during World War II, produced essential fluid sealing products for the Allied war effort. On April 25, 1942, he married Gladys Louisa Bonner at St. Paul's Church in Woking. The couple did not have any children, and Gladys later married Henry Gillespie in 1948.
Harold died in air operations over enemy territory on February 14, 1945. He was killed a day after his 25th birthday.
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PHOTOS & DOCUMENTS |
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Details |
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Marriage to Gladys Louisa Bonner |
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