Reginald Wilfred “Crash” Harrison

How many times can one bomber pilot escape death before his commanding officer decides that fate has been tested enough? For Flight Lieutenant Reginald Wilfred “Crash” Harrison, the answer was four aircraft crashes, 19 operations over occupied Europe and one of the most remarkable survival stories in Royal Canadian Air Force history.

Reginald Wilfred Harrison was born on 16 August 1922 at Pheasant Forks, Saskatchewan, and grew up on farms near Lorlie during the Great Depression. While ploughing fields behind a team of horses, he would stop working whenever training aircraft passed overhead. Determined to become a pilot, Harrison enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 and trained under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. He received his pilot’s wings in April 1943 and reached England that July.

Harrison was eventually posted to No. 431 “Iroquois” Squadron, RCAF, at RAF Croft in Yorkshire. He flew Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster heavy bombers with No. 6 Group, RAF Bomber Command, striking targets in France and Germany. His operations included missions before and after D-Day and support for Allied forces during the Normandy campaign. He later recalled taking part in the Falaise operation, where the danger came not only from German defences but also from the possibility of Allied bombs falling short.

The nickname “Crash” was not an exaggeration. Harrison survived four separate aircraft crashes during training and operations. His first major ordeal occurred during his second familiarization flight as a “second dickey,” when he accompanied an experienced crew on an operation against Amiens. Unknown to the crew, a live 500-pound bomb had failed to release. After the Halifax landed, the bomb fell from the aircraft near the end of the runway and exploded, tearing the bomber apart and killing both gunners. Harrison was blown clear, then returned with another survivor to help free the injured pilot from the wreckage.

Harrison suffered phosphorus burns and spent approximately ten weeks receiving treatment at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, where pioneering specialists cared for severely burned Allied aircrew. His treatment made him a member of the famous Guinea Pig Club. Harrison later emphasized that his own injuries were less extensive than those suffered by many fellow members, some of whom endured dozens of reconstructive operations.

Could any airman return to operations after being blown from a burning bomber? Harrison did. On his thirteenth operation, which his nervous rear gunner persuaded the crew to call “12A,” an engine failed immediately before takeoff. The fully loaded Halifax veered from the runway, briefly became airborne and crashed into a stone wall. Harrison was found unconscious on the wing, but his bomb aimer later died from his injuries. Harrison recovered and once again returned to operational flying.

Another extraordinary escape came after Harrison converted to the Lancaster. During an operation against Duisburg, another Allied bomber mistook his aircraft for a German four-engined night fighter and opened fire. The attack damaged Harrison’s hydraulic system, leaving him with only one functioning undercarriage leg. He brought the crippled Lancaster back to England and crash-landed at RAF Carnaby, where the remaining undercarriage collapsed and the aircraft spun across the airfield. On a separate occasion, he was forced to make an emergency parachute descent, qualifying him for membership in the Caterpillar Club.

Harrison completed 19 operations before his wing commander removed him from further combat flying. The decision was not a reflection of poor performance. His commander believed that Harrison had survived too many close calls and might not survive another. Harrison never forgot the cost of Bomber Command’s campaign. In a photograph taken shortly after he earned his wings, he stood with three other young airmen. He was the only one who returned home.

After the war, Harrison returned to Saskatchewan and married Jean Woods in December 1946. They settled in Saskatoon and raised three daughters. Harrison worked for the Veterans Land Administration for 38 years, helping returning servicemen obtain farms, homes and other support as they rebuilt their lives in Canada. He approached that work with the same patience and sense of responsibility that had defined his military service.

For many years, Harrison spoke little about the war. That changed after a magazine article about his experiences introduced his story to a wider audience. He became a respected witness to the history of Bomber Command, appearing in interviews, documentaries, schools and remembrance events. He remained closely associated with No. 431 Squadron and was embraced by its modern successor, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, as an honorary member of the squadron family.

France appointed Harrison a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour in 2016 for his contribution to the liberation of France. He later received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022 and the King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2025. The Governor General’s official register records the Coronation Medal as having been awarded to Reginald Harrison of Saskatoon on 20 June 2025.

Even at the age of 100, Harrison’s love of flying remained undiminished. In 2023, he returned to the air in an open-cockpit de Havilland Tiger Moth, the type on which his flying career had begun more than eighty years earlier. It was a fitting return for a Saskatchewan farm boy who had once stopped his horses simply to watch aircraft pass overhead.

Reginald “Crash” Harrison died in Saskatoon on 20 November 2025 at the age of 103. He was remembered as the last known surviving Second World War member of No. 431 Squadron, a decorated Bomber Command veteran, a member of the Guinea Pig and Caterpillar Clubs and a deeply modest man who reserved the word “hero” for those who never returned. His life was defined not merely by the crashes he survived, but by what he did afterward: he returned to the cockpit, served his crew, helped fellow veterans and carried the memory of his fallen comrades for more than eighty years.