STEEL, Harold Jack


1162703, Sergeant (Observer), Harold Jack STEEL
Aged 21


427 (RCAF) Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Killed in Action on Thursday, 26th February 1943


"Ferte manus certas" - Strike sure

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, sqn id. 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



Harold Steel is buried in Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery, grave JJB:27

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details


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