Lt M.J.J. ‘Jerry’ Harris RNVR

[Larry]

I am after any details of the service career in the FAA for Lt M.J.J. ‘Jerry’ Harris RNVR, who had been with 749 NAS and later CO of 710 Sqn NAS. Harris also spent time serving with the Naval Air Radio Installation Unit at Christchurch (then in Hampshire) as a test pilot circa 1943-44. Where else did he serve?

After D-Day on 5th July 1944 he managed to persuade someone in the 405th FG USAAF to allow him to fly a P-47D on a mission over Normandy. He got lost and landed for fuel before returning to Christchurch, where some of the 405th remained after 29th June when a large contingent relocated to A-8.

Strangely, for a unofficial trip, Lt Harris is actually listed for 5th July 1944, in the operations records for the 511th FS, as a pilot in Blue Flight under Field Order No.434C which stated ‘Had Lt. Harris with us who became lost and landed on beach on Cherbourg Peninsula. Returned safely’.

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

Reginald Nolte in his History of the 405th Fighter Group, Thunder Monsters Over Europe, states that:

On 5th July a Royal Navy pilot , Lieutenant Harris, who was assigned to the Airspeed facility as a tow-ship pilot to test Horsa gliders, convinced the friendly Yanks to let him test hop one of their "bloody great Monsters." After successfully flying one of the 511th aircraft, he had to have a look at the great show going on across the Channel. The conspiratorial pilots of the 511th FS thought that this was just the way to promote friendly relations with their British allies and arranged to have Lieutenant Harris pose as an American fighter pilot.

All went well and the mission, an armed recce in the Laval-Nantes area, went off as scheduled; however, on the return flight to Christchurch Lieutenant Harris, who had been flying with Blue Flight, disappeared. What had seemed to be a jolly good idea suddenly became a cloud of doom. The Squadron Commander, Major Coleman, would be greatly unhappy at such a breach of military discipline and good sense. It the Group Commander learned of the fiasco, who could know what reverberations might result? Heaven help all concerned should IX TAC hear of such shenanigans. The smell of a General Court Martial was in the air, and members of the squadron laid low awaiting the heavy hand of retribution.

Late in the day, however, a lone Thunder Monster descended upon the airdrome, and Lieutenant Harris returned from the dead to the mighty relief of all concerned. The Lieutenant had become so enamored with his surroundings over the Continent that he had run out of gas and was forced to land on the beach. Fortunately, it was a solid stretch of beach and he had landed, wheels down, saving the aircraft. After finding some friendly soldiers who were able to supply him with a little petrol he had taken off and flown to one of the few airfields operating on the Continent, received a full ration of petrol, and returned to Christchurch.

Fortunately, news of the stunt had not filtered up the military chain of command very far and had not reached Headquarters, IX TAC. The event was relegated to those treasured reminiscences of, "Jeez, do you remember when...?"

See:
Thhunder Monsters Over Europe A History of the 405th Fighter Group in World War II and the Christchurch Squadrons.
Nolte,Reginald G.
Manhattan (Kansas):Sunflower University Press,1989,
p.21.

Col.

[Larry]

Thanks Col.

Obviously Reg Nolte did not appreciate that the NARIU was a separate FAA unit based on the same airfield as the Airspeed Factory, which with the 405th FG made for a very crowded airfield in the build up to D-Day