Page 4 - Harry Brittain

A Potted History of Harry Brittain

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Harry was born, the sixth child of William and Annie Brittain, on 15 September 1921 in the small
hamlet of Moorsholm; the family soon moved to a small holding next to the edge of the Moors in
Commondale, near Castleton, North Yorkshire.
He attended the local village school and Harry had the North York Moors as a playground to grow
up in. Harry as a young lad full of fun who, as a teenager, liked to ride his motorbike around the
area, often with his daredevil older sister Elsie on the back. Harry told a story of once riding his
motorbike at night having had a drink or two and on spying the local policeman in Castleton, he
turned off his lights and engine and coasted down the hill to park behind a barn – and he got away
with it! Always full of fun and mild pranks Harry continued to cheer people up throughout his life.
Harry was passionate about football and was a star centre-forward for a local team,
Kirby Wiske AFC for whom he scored 7 goals in the final match of one season!
On leaving school Harry began work at the local brickworks where his eldest brother, Fred, was
well established. Harry did not find this exhilarating work but though it was hard he gave it his all.
However, when Harry was called up to the Forces in 1941 his boss told him not to worry as his
occupation was an essential one; Harry had other ideas and said that there was no way he was
going to stay – he was off to see the world!

Harry, having volunteered to join the RAF, he wanting to be a Pilot was sent a travel warrant and
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instructed to report to the Edinburgh Recruit Centre on the 27 June 1941. Here he was given the
RAF Service number 1553905. This service number is within a block of service numbers issued by
the RAF in May 1941 (1550001 to 1575000), so one must assume the RAF had been in contact
with Harry in the May of 1941, they allocating this number from that block. It is noted in his service
records that Harry was not required for aircrew duties, the RAF Form 2171 being issued by No.16
A.C.S.B (Aircrew Selection Board), this Selection Board based also in Edinburgh, the notice dated
24 June 1941. The probable reason for this was that Harry was colour blind and thus not suitable
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for aircrew duties.
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Interestingly Harry was paid aircrew pay between the 1 December to the 31 December 1943,
one must therefore assume he flew in RAF aircraft, possibly to check on the engine(s)
he had repaired.

Volunteers made up aircrew, the RAF did not order a recruit to take up aircrew trades, so therefore
he failed the medical examination on his eyesight. This saved his life, if he had passed the medical
examination to be aircrew the chances of him surviving the war would have been slim. Of the
prewar RAF aircrew strength, only 10% survived to see May 1945, with in total 55,573 out of
125,000 aircrew that underwent training as aircrew perishing on operations or training accidents.
Bomber Command, having suffered many losses on daylight operations started moving to night
operations, much to the dismay of pilots who were unaccustomed to flying a night. One pilot
commenting “Only Owls and bloody fools fly at night”.
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On the 28 June 1941, Harry was sent home and placed on Reserve until a training position could
be found for him.

Harry was then issued with a travel warrant and told to report to No. 7 Recruit Centre, Morecambe,
Lancashire on the 28 July 1941.Here, he undertook basic military training and possibly
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examinations to decide his trade in the RAF in the ground crew role, as it was in the September of
1941 (the exact date is not clear on his service record) that he finally arrived at No. 9 S. of TT
(School of technical training) based also in Morecambe. This unit was part of No. 20 (Training)
Group, the Group’s Headquarters at Market Drayton, Shropshire.