1162703, Sergeant (Observer), Harold Jack STEEL
Aged 21
Harold Frank STEEL was born on 28th April 1921 (Bury St.Edmunds), son of Albert Edward and Martha Elizabeth STEEL (née POTTER )
In the 1939 register, a Post Office sorting clerk and telegraphist, he was at 20 Grove Road, Bury St.Edmunds with his widowed mother Martha E STEEL [21-4-1893]( His father died in 1936); sister Marjorie E (later Mrs Blackmore) [12-9-1923]; Doreen A HOGG (later Mrs STEEL) [18-2-1920] and a John A VERSEY, [12-4-1883] married, heating engineer. There was one closed record (probably brother Alan who married Doreen and died in 2011). His younger brother Alan E (Peter) STEEL (also an Old Culfordian) served as a signaller with the Army in North Africa and survived the war |
On 26th February 1943, at 18:49, Vickers Wellington Mk III ser.no. BJ886, call sign ZL-F of 427 RCAF Squadron took off from RAF Croft ( near Darlington)
in a mission to Cologne. They crashed at St. Oedenrode (Vleut), shot down by a night fighter.
The crew was :- Pilot - Sgt William Edward HARWOOD (RAF) buried in Eindhoven Navigator - P/O Oliver Henry SKELTON (RCAF) buried in Groesbeek Canadian Cemetery Observer - Sgt Harold STEEL (RAF) buried in Eindhoven W/Op/Air Gunner - F.Sgt Theo Curtis SMITH (RCAF) buried in Groesbeek Canadian Cemetery W/Op/Air Gunner - Sgt Vivian Max CAPLIN (RAF) buried in Eindhoven Air Gunner - F/Sgt Charles Francis LEACH (RCAF) buried in Newton (Calvary) Cemetery, U.S.A. For various reasons, their graves are scattered amongst several cemeteries as a result of concentrations. |
photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details