Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
Ft.Lt. Webster was killed when Handley Page Halifax II HR928 TL-R of 35 Squadron was lost on a mission to Berlin. The Halifax was shot down by a Luftwaffe night fighter, and crashed at Wensickendorf, some 20 miles NNW of Berlin. G/c Robinson was an experienced bomber pilot, and had recently been made Station Commander at R.A.F. Graveley.Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1943;W.R. Chorley; 1996; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 90 3, page 280
His D.F.C. was gazetted in the London Gazette on May 14th 1943, and reported in the Northern Daily Mail (now the Hartlepool Mail), on Saturday 15/05/1943:
“Stockton pilot gets D.F.C.
‘Services Worthy of Highest Praise’
Pilot Officer Harry Webster, R.A.F.V.R., of Stockton, has been awarded the D.F.C. for gallantry and devotion to duty. His home is at Billingham and he was educated at West Hartlepool. He enlisted in the R.A.F.V.R. in 1940, and was commissioned in 1942.
The official citation reads: “Pilot Officer Webster has proved to be a most successful captain of aircraft, possessing the coolest determination and courage. He has completed many operational missions with a large measure of success, and has displayed a high standard of leadership in important duties. His services are worthy of the highest praise.”
Also killed in the same incident were Gp.Capt. B.V. Robinson, B.V. and Ft.Sgt. D. Burke
Harry Webster is remembered in Billingham on B139.05
