Barnett, Harry Henry Alfred

Date of birth:: December 8th, 1920 (Edmonton/Alberta, Canada)
Date of death:: March 11th, 1945 (Xanten/North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
Buried on:: Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek
Plot: II. Row: G. Grave: 14.
Service number:: D/46110
Nationality:: Canadian

Biography

Sergeant
General List, Canadian Army
3 Public Relations Group.

Harry Henry Alfred Barnett was given the permanent assignment of taking aerial photographs of combat zones, if necessary, and, if possible, of arranging flights in Taylorcraft Auster aircraft. In order to do so, he left press camp Materhorn on March 11, 1945 at approx. 13.30 hours to make a flight with the English Captain Clifford Leslie Curtis-Willson, Air Observation Pilot of ‘C’ Flight, 660 Air Observation Pilot Squadron, over the Rhine area.
At 22.30 hours a driver of a jeep, who had gone to the landing strip in order to wait for Sergeant Barnett on his return, reported to Captain Fraser that the agents on the landing strip said that the Taylorcraft Auster had been shot down. Captain Willson got wounded, but was still alive and was moved to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. He died of his wounds in the morning of March 12 at the age of 26. Sergeant Barnett was assumed to be dead.
Early in the morning of March 12 Captain Fraser set out to gather more information. Ultimately, he found the plane wreck at approx. 5,000 metres west of Xanten in Germany. Sergeant Barnett’s body had been removed from the plane and put on the ground. His pockets were searched and the only thing that was found was a small knife.
A conversation with a shooter, who had witnessed the action, and examination of the plane revealed that it had been attacked from above and behind by a Messerschmitt BF 109. The plane got severely damaged and crashed in a field. Sergeant Barnett had been shot from above through his right shoulder and back and in both hands. He must have died instantly on March 11, 1945.

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