Harold William Reid J/41869 RCAF

Harold William Reid was born in Belmont, Ontario on 3 February 1919.

In the summer of 1940 he enlisted with the 2nd Elgin Regiment based in St. Thomas, and in June 1942 he enlisted for overseas service and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in December 1942. For pilot training he was shipped to Quebec City, and left for England on March 3rd 1945. He was given the rank of Flight Officer, and assigned to the RAF`s 626 Squadron in Wickenby, Lincolnshire.

Harold Reid flew 6 combat missions. On 5 April 1945, Harold Reid was sent on a sortie over Germany to target a petrochemical factory located in Lützkendorf, Saxony.

The 626 Squadron war diary entry for 5 April reported simply that “Aircraft [from Lützkendorf] returned at 05.13hrs with the exception of 'B2' and 'Y2'”, the aircraft having been brought down by the anti-aircraft fire of Flakregiment 33 protecting the factory [In lower left on map]. Harold was the pilot of 'Y2' – Lancaster PB411.

The families of the seven men aboard PB411 soon received telegrams from Ottawa informing them of their sons' fates: “Regret to advise that your son... is reported missing after air operations overseas April 5th Stop”.

In 1948, Harold's parents learned from Ottawa that the remains of their son had finally been located in a mass grave near Lützkendorf, along with the rest of the his crew. Interestingly, there was very little evidence to support the conclusion that the bodies recovered at Lützkendorf were actually the crew of PB411.

The British Casualties Officer stationed in Germany at the time believed the mass grave contained the remains of airmen from three different Lancaster crews. One of the bodies in this grave was wearing clothing inscribed with the name of a crew member from PB411. The Casualties Office assumed that, because at least one member of PB411 was located within the mass grave, Harold was likely there as well. The remains collected from Lutzkendorf were transferred to the British Military Cemetery (Heerstrasse) in Berlin and a cemetery marker was erected to commemorate the crew of PB411.

The Reid family's wounds were opened once again in 1951 when the Casualties Officer in Ottawa sent word that Harold's remains had recently been discovered in Weissensee, Thuringia, after the remains of an unknown soldier exhumed there was matched to Harold's dental records. Weissensee is forty miles to the west of Lützkendorf.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that the grave marker under which Harold's remains were discovered in Weissensee was dated 9 April 1945 – four days after PB411's disappearance over Lützkendorf: “As a result of working on the report... of 8th September 1947, we decided that the crew of PB411 was buried, with members of other crews at Braunsbedra [the mass grave near Lützkendorf], some 40 miles east of Weissensee”.

It is true that the main evidence for identification at Braunsbedra was another clothing clue but... if both pieces of evidence are correct, how are we to account for the fact that the pilot was buried 40 miles away from the rest of his crew?

Bomber Command lost that night 6 aircraft. The raid was not very successful and another attack was flown a couple of nights later.