Allyson Newburg's Blog, page 3

Celebrating the launch of The Harris Crew

My book The Harris Crew may now be out, but due to the challenges of COVID-19, the availability of the book is another matter.  For now, press releases and other promotion will have to wait.  My preferred launch would have been a little celebration at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, in view of the museum’s own Lancaster, ‘Vera.’  Since this is no longer possible, Mark, Bodhi and I decided to have our own little celebration in isolation.  Thanks to a talented Toronto baker named Juanita Koo, we were able to enjoy this beautiful (and tasty) cake, modelled after ‘Vera.’


I’ll be in touch to let you know when the book becomes more widely available.  You can also get updates by visiting the website.

Ton-Up Lancs

550 Squadron celebrates 'Vulture Strikes!' 100th successful operation on March 6, 1945.
550 Squadron was home to three ‘Ton-Up Lancs,’ the nickname for a Lancaster which reached a hundred successful operations:

PA995 ‘Vulture Strikes!’ (A.K.A. BQ-V) - 100 successful operationsED905 ‘Press on Regardless’ (A.K.A. BQ-F) - 100 successful operationsEE139 ‘Phantom of the Ruhr’ (A.K.A. BQ-B) - 121 successful operations 
There are only two remaining air-worthy Lancasters: One is located at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum near Hamilton, Ontario.  The second flies out RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, UK and was at one time marked in the call letters of the Phantom of the Ruhr to celebrate the success of this particular aircraft.

Ton-Up Lancs: A Photographic Record

During the course of World War II, only 35 Lancasters successfully completed 100 or more sorties.  Ton-Up Lancs: A Photographic Record by Norman Franks profiles each one, including the three Lancasters operated by 550 Squadron. 

While the title of the book gives the impression it will be all about the planes, Frank uses the successes of these Lancasters to recognize all of the crews who flew these incredible aircraft.

Robert Harris and his crew are pictured and profiled as one of the several crews who flew Vulture Strikes.

Looking Back

Former rear air gunner Douglas Hicks looking back towards the rear turret of "Vera" from the
Canadian Warplanes Heritage Museum. Source: The Hicks family
In May 2005, Harris Crew rear air gunner Douglas Hicks had the opportunity to step inside a Lancaster once again when ‘Vera,' operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
traveled Jones Beach State Park for the New York Air Show.

May 8, 1945 - Victory in Europe Day

Gordon Nicol's copy of the ships orders aboard the S.S. Ranchi
for May 8th, Source: Linda RosenbaumWith Germany's unconditional surrender the day before, May 8, 1945 marked Victory in Europe Day.  Tom Ditson was on his way back to Canada to continue recovering from the injuries he acquired during the Pforzheim raid.

Douglas Hicks marked the end of the war in Europe among his fellow ‘Guinea Pigs’ at the Canadian Wing of the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, where anyone mobile made their way into town.  Patients acquired kegs of beer, took them back to the ward and tied them to the portable bed tables.  With their make-shift beer wagon in tow they made the rounds to the beds of the immobile patients.

Following his liberation from Dulag Luft, Gordon Nicol would return to Canada, celebrating the occasion with his fellow passengers returning to Canada from England aboard the S.S. Ranchi.

Gerard Kelleher and David Yemen would not only celebrate the end of the war in Europe, but their return to England after the liberation of Stalag Luft VIIA.  Kelleher and Yemen would leave Stalag Luft VIIA returning to England on or about May 8th via nearby Landshut airfield, where several thousand former Allied POWs were being shuttled to airfields at Rheims, France and Brussels, Belgium for the onward journey to England by air.

One-time crew members Albert Colin and William Towle would have marked the end of the war in the company of fellow airmen at 550 Squadron, where from April 29th to May 7th, they participated in Operation Manna, air dropping food to the starving population of the Netherlands.

Sadly for the families of Robert Harris, Eric Robinson and Kenneth Smith, there would be no homecoming.

Listen to Canada's Prime Minister address the nation on May 8, 1945

Germany Surrenders

V-E Day celebrations, Bay Street, Toronto
May 7, 1945, Photographer: John H. Boyd
City of Toronto ArchivesOn May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at the Allied headquarters in Reims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II.

After more than five years of fighting, the war, at least in Europe, was finally over.

Visit the New Harris Crew Website

Learn more about the crew members and 550 Squadron on the new Harris Crew website.

The website also features details about the new book, The Harris Crew in addition to author details and FAQs.

May 5, 1945 - A Letter to Mary

In a letter written to his fiancé Mary Burton, on May 5, 1945 from Stalag Luft VIIA, David Yemen wondered if she had been notified yet that he was safe and now a prisoner of war, “…everything has been such a shambles in these Gerry prison camps the last month or so that it’s a wonder if they have got the news through.”  Yemen goes on to tell Mary that he and crewmate Gerard Kelleher were moved to a ‘regular camp,’ leaving Douglas Hicks and Gordon Nicol behind [at Dulag Luft] and that “other than having lost some weight (and hair),” he was O.K.

War-Time Rationing

Robert Harris once wrote home to his wife Margaret that he believed he ate better at 550 Squadron than he did at home.  This was not a slight on his wife’s cooking.

From 1942 until 1947, the consumption of sugar, meat and dairy products was carefully rationed in Canada.  Enormous quantities of food were being shipped overseas to feed the British public, whose own supplies had been cut off.  Food also went to feed Allied forces, prisoners of war and refugees fleeing war-torn countries.  In general, Canadians were sympathetic to the war-weary, hungry British public and willing participants in the rationing program.
Eleven million ration cards were issued in Canada with coupons issued for staples such as sugar, butter and meat.  Canadians supplemented their war rations by planting ‘Victory’ gardens, preserving food, fishing, and hunting.  Not a single scrap of food would go to waste.
In Britain, rationing began two years earlier, in 1940, and continued until 1954.   In letters home to Margaret, Harris described receiving many packages from her, containing such provisions as tinned salmon, honey, tomato juice, cookies and toffee. Given the ongoing rationing in Britain and the reasonable availability of food on base, Harris would pass many of the treats along to his parents who were living in Newark, England, about 80 km southwest of North Killingholme.
At the end of the war, Canadian exports made up 57% of all wheat and flour, 39% of bacon, 24% of cheese and 15% of the eggs consumed in Britain.
I wonder what the determined Canadian public of the 40’s would make of today’s COVID-19-related grocery hoarders?

Source: Wartime rations meant Canadian cooks got creative by Elinor Florencehttps://www.e-know.ca/regions/east-kootenay/wartime-rations-meant-canadian-cooks-got-creative/

May 3, 1945 - Red Cross Supplies Arrive

POWs welcome U.S. liberators at Stalag Luft VIIA, Source: USAF Academy Library Special Collections
Much to the relief of the former prisoners still awaiting evacuation at the now-liberated Stalag Luft VIIA near Moosburg, the Red Cross arrived on May 3rd, bringing with them truckloads of food parcels.  In his book Time Out. A Remembrance of World War II, American airman Bill Ethridge described this new situation: “Every day has been a picnic with plenty of food, wood to cook with and bread that tasted like cake. And thank the Good Lord no more barley.”