509

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Page Status Transcribed

After some local flights during which instruments were checked, the Hudson aircraft in which the journey was to be made, proceeded to Gander, Newfoundland, from which it departed on the 8th August, 1941 arriving at Prestwick, Scotland, on the same day after eleven hours twenty minutes flying time.

On arrival in the United Kingdom, Pilot Officer Woodrow was posted on the 9th August, to No. 3 Personnel Reception Centre, Bournemouth, and from here on the 23rd August, he was posted to No. 23 Operational Training Unit, Pershore, Worcestershire, where he crewed-up and completed his training on Wellington bomber aircraft. On the 30th September, 1941 he was posted to No. 214 Squadron, Stradishall, Suffolk and commenced operational flying. With this squadron as Navigator of a Wellington bomber he took part in six operational flights, his targets including Dunkirk and Brest (4) in France and Hamburg in Germany.

Pilot Officer Woodrow was Navigator of a Wellington bomber which took off on air operations on the night of the 15/16th January, 1942 to attack the target of Hamburg. The aircraft failed to return to its base and all members of the crew including Pilot Officer Woodrow were classified as missing. In due course Pilot Officer Woodrow's death was officially presumed to have occurred on the 16th January, 1941.

Pilot Officer Woodrow's brother Flight Sergeant F.E. Woodrow also served with the R.N.Z.A.F. during the war.

A post war casualty reporte revealed that the bodies of two members of the crew had been washed ashore on the coast of Yorkshire, but although extensive searches were carried out for the remainder of the crew, no trace was found and it has therefore been assumed that Pilot Officer Woodrow lost his life at sea without trace.

Find a Grave link with photos of P/O Woodrow: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15266810/henry_joseph-woodrow/photo
Auckland Museum link with more info on P/O Woodrow: https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C21216?n=henry+joseph+woodrow&from=%2Fwar-memorial%2Fonline-cenotaph%2Fsearch&ordinal=0

5/2/2191 AS2
244 hours as
NAVIGATOR (underlined)

Mr. H. Woodrow (F), (right aligned)
13 Sandringham Road, (right aligned)
Mt. Albert, (right aligned)
AUCKLAND. (right aligned & underlined)

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