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Operational Training Unit, first at Wescott and later at Oakley, both in Buckinghamshire where he crewed up and completed his training on Wellington bomber aircraft. He was posted on the 8th April, 1943 to No. 1657 Conversion Unit, Stradishall, Suffolk, where he graduated on Stirling bomber aircraft. On the 15th of the following month he was posted to No. 75 (N.Z.) Squadron first at Newmarket in Suffolk and later at Mepal, Cambridgeshire. From these stations as pilot of a Stirling bomber he took part in twenty operational flights including attacks on Berlin (2), Dortmund, Dusseldorf (2), Wuppertal (2), Mulheim, Gelsenkirchen, Cologne, Hamburg (2), Essen, Nurenberg (2) and Munchen - Gladbach. All these targets were in Germany. He also carried out two bombing raids on Turin in Italy and two sorties minelaying in enemy waters.

Pilot Officer Helm was the pilot of a Stirling bomber which took off on air operations on the night of the 31st August, 1943 to attack the target of Berlin. The aircraft failed to return to its base and all the members of the crew including Pilot Officer Helm were classified as missing. Later, information was received from a German source through the International Red Cross Committee that Pilot Officer Helm had been killed and in consequence reclassified as missing believed killed. Information was subsequently received that he had been buried in a comrades grave in the cemetery for Soviet prisoners of war at Ludwigsfelde - Heide, twenty miles south of Berlin. In due course his death was officially presumed to have occurred on the 1st September 1943.

The crew of the aircraft contained two other New Zealanders Sergeant S.D. Mackay of Stratford and Sergeant J.G.A. Fisk of Wanganui.

Find a Grave link with a photo of Pilot Officer Helm: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18403678/george_vincent-helm

5/15/2543 AS2
572 hours as
PILOT. (underlined)

Mr. H.V. Helm (F) (right aligned)
2 Maitland Street, (right aligned)
INVERCARGILL. (right aligned & underlined)