The following is a first-hand account by Harry Furner, mid-upper gunner, who was critically injured in an attack on his Lancaster by an enemy aircraft in June 1944. It is an amazing story of survival against the odds. A fellow member of 35 Squadron, Kenneth Grantham, saw the aircraft after it got back: “I went down to the graveyard and had a look at ‘F’ for Freddy. What a mess! It’s a wonder they lived at all.”

The photograph above shows what was left of Harry’s gun turret.

Despite his terrible injuries, Harry went on to live a very full life, and at the end of this first-hand account his son, Phil Furner, has given an account of his later years.

Above: Harry Furner before the injuries incurred in June 1944. Courtesy of Phil Furner.

The Attack on the Marsden Crew Aircraft

On 23 June 1944 the Op was to Coubronne, France in Lancaster TL-F (ND916), the first time we’d flown in a “F” for Freddy.

After bombing the target (a V1 flying bomb launch site) we’d crossed the French Coast on the way home. Over the Pas de Calais area, North East of Dunkirk, (51:10N – 02:30E), we were attacked at 0117hrs by a Ju88 from the port quarter.

Without warning cannon shells were being fired from below, I couldn’t see him initially because of the tail plane. Because we’d been hit, I returned fire by hosing fire over the end of the aircraft to where I estimated he was.

The aircraft shuddered as the fighter’s shells found their mark. The port inner engine caught fire and the flames were reaching down to my turret. I turned the turret around but still couldn’t see the fighter. The next attack caught my turret. The perspex canopy shattered and I could feel the hot shrapnel hitting me. As the pieces hit my head it seemed like searchlights were shining in my eyes accompanied by stars.

The guns wouldn’t fire from the fighter damage and the hydraulics had been hit and I was covered in hydraulic oil. I also received various shrapnel wounds to my arms and legs.

As well as the rear and mid-upper turrets being put out of action in the attack, the Lancaster’s port inner petrol tank was holed. A booster pump was shot away, the H2S shattered, bomb doors and fuselage damaged. With the holed fuel tank on fire, Geoff put the aircraft into a dive as the fire extinguisher hadn’t worked, in an effort to put the flames out, and flew into cloud. No further attacks were made by the fighter as it appeared he thought the aircraft was doomed and had mistaken the cloud for the ‘drink’ (sea).

I dropped out of the turret and tried to get out because all I could see was an orange glow which I thought was a fire and tried to beat out it with my gauntlet. I crawled towards the exit door, up hill, as the aircraft was in a dive but I found it difficult as my right leg wouldn’t work properly, I don’t think I’d realised at that stage that I’d been wounded in the thigh. I knew that we were over the Channel so I thought I’d rather drown than burn. I managed to get the exit door open but because of the slipstream in the dive I didn’t have the strength to get out. I just sat there thinking this was the end.

I don’t recall getting to the rest position and was very surprised to find myself there. I was patched up as best as possible by Harry Rolls with a couple of first aid pads (shell dressings) being applied to my right thigh, head and eyes but I refused any morphine. I also asked Harry Rolls to take my boots off as I always wanted to die with my boots off but he refused as it was so cold.

The dive put out the flames but it took both Geoff and Charlie to pull the aircraft out of the dive, Charlie with his back to the instrument panel pushing the control column and Geoff pulling. Once they’d got the Lancaster levelled out we headed for base. We got a message from the skipper asking did I want him to put down at Manston (an emergency airfield) or get to base. It was always a feather in the pilot’s cap if he got a damaged aircraft back so I said base. I was told it would be a rough landing but I said OK. Geoff asked for a priority landing as we gunners were wounded. The port wheel had been damaged in the attack and we were on three engines and it was a rough landing! After we touched down, we pulled off the runway onto the grass.

Neville was trapped in his turret as a result of the attack and after landing they got him out of the turret and placed him on the rear spar. Harry Rolls had laid over me for the landing in case the Lancaster crashed during the landing.

Having landed safely, they got me onto a stretcher inside the aircraft, strapped me in, and took me out, putting me down on the grass outside the aircraft whilst waiting to be put in the ambulance and I had never felt as cold as I did then. Geoff was annoyed that the ambulance had been sent to the wrong end of the runway so there was a bit of a delay for it to reach the aircraft. Neville was brought out and put next to me on the grass. They must have given me a shot of something then as I went out like a light.

My flying days were over 3 days before my 20^th birthday!

Both Neville and I were taken to the Station Sick Quarters and were then transferred to the RAF hospital at Ely, Cambridgeshire, by ambulance early on the 24^th and I regained consciousness in the early evening. I was wearing a pair of shorts but felt very warm. As I came around I started to feel around my body to see how bad my wounds were. Only my mouth and chin were exposed from the bandages that were around my head. My right shoulder and both forearms were padded with dressings; the right thumb was in plaster. My left leg was OK but as I felt my right thigh a cold sweat came over me. It was enclosed in a very large dressing. I moved my left leg over and found my lower right leg was there much to my relief.

The Doctor paid me a visit and told me that I’d lost my left eye and that the right one had been damaged.

The usual practice in the event of aircrew being wounded was that the Air Force would send a telegram to the parents advising what had happened. Word came to the house and Beattie was home at the time. She immediately went and found Dad who was working, doing the milk round. He returned to the depot with the horse and then headed home. He read the telegram and just sat in his chair and cried his heart out. Rita recalled it was the only time she ever saw him cry. He headed off to see me at Ely with my eldest sister Dorrie. I was still unable to see but I heard his voice and said ‘Dad’. He said ‘Thank God, when I saw the bandages on the head I thought you might have brain damage’.

I remained at Ely where I spent time in the convalescent home after my wounds had been treated and started to adjust to life with only one eye. Thankfully my right eye healed. The shrapnel that had been removed from my wounds had been placed on my locker in a little linen bag but at some stage while I still had the bandages on both eyes it was taken, don’t know why anyone would want to take it!

Neville was also at Ely but in a different ward and I didn’t see him until Geoff came to visit us. I was walking again at that stage and we took Neville outside. His right arm had been hit during the attack and his upper arm had been smashed. They had put him in a huge plaster cast that ran from his wrist right up the arm and across the shoulder. Because of the weight we laid him on the grass while we talked. I didn’t see Neville again after that.

I was told whilst at Ely that the revolver that Neville used to carry in his flying boot had been hit during the fighter attack. All that had been found when they removed his boot was the chamber and barrel; there was no sign of the butt!

I’ve often wondered why the fighter didn’t finish us off. I think he may have thought that with the engine on fire and the plane in a dive he had done enough for the ‘kill’ and broke off the attack – luckily for us!

From the memoirs and spoken recollections of Harry Furner, collated by his son Phil Furner.

Our catalogue collection for the Marsden crew can be seen HERE

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Harry Furner after the Coubronne op

• After recovering at Ely/the Convalescent home, Harry was sent home on compassionate grounds.
• On 29 January ’45 he was posted to the 2^nd Installation Unit at RAF Kidbrooke  which was not far from home. It was a stores Depot and also a Barrage Ballooon unit. Dad saw out the rest of the war there until he was discharged from the RAF on 23 May ’45.
• He had been given a trade scholarship when the war broke out but that was put on hold. In 1951, despite having lost his left eye, Harry decided to take up the scholarship again and went to the Shoreditch Teachers Training College in Egham. He used to go down the hill in his lunch breaks to watch the stone masons building the Runnymede Memorial.
• He and Mum emigrated to New Zealand in 1959 on the ’Ten Pound Pom’ scheme. They settled in Auckland after arriving in Wellington (re the flight reference in the logbook).
• After moving a couple of times they settled in South Auckland in Manurewa and bought a house which was to be the family home.
• Dad then worked at Papakura Intermediate School as a woodwork teacher. He was then asked to be a founding member doing woodwork classes at Greenmeadows Intermediate School in Manurewa and became the leading woodwork teacher for the whole of Auckland city, finally retiring in 1989.
• Harry drove up until the age of 80 and it was the standing joke in the family that Mum was his left eye when she was in the front passenger seat. Despite only having one eye, he coped remarkably well in all aspects of his life.
• As a treat for his 80^th birthday, we traveled to Canada and we flew together in the Canadian Warplane Heritage Avro Lancaster. It had been 60 years and 23 day since he’d last flown operationally in a Lancaster bomber. He was rightly apprehensive about the flight but I assured him that nobody would be shooting at him this time. He thoroughly enjoyed the flight and was extremely well look after by the staff and crew at the museum.

PHIL FURNER, 2003

Above: Harry in the rear door of the Lancaster in 2004

“Dad passed away in 2012 aged 88, not a bad run considering he was so badly wounded three days before his 20^th birthday!”