LEST WE FORGET
Lieutenant Frederick HARVEY
Service No: 55
Born: Kings Park SA, 18 July 1895
Enlisted in the Army: 19 August 1914
Unit: No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1 Squadron B.E.2c aircraft 4312), Belah, Palestine, 12 November 1917, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Deir El Belah War Cemetery, Deir El Belah, Israel
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Albert James and Elizabeth Harvey, of 275, Goodwood Rd., King’s Park, South Australia. Native of Albert Park, Victoria, Australia
Place of Association: Goodwood SA
Remembered: Panel 188, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 12 November 1917, Lieutenant Harvey (Observer) was fatally injured in the crash of B.E.2c 4312 and Lieutenant Leonard Thomas Eaton Taplin DFC (198) was injured. Lieutenant Taplin reported that he “took off from the aerodrome at Weli-Sheikh-Nuran at about 4 o’clock on a practice flight with Lieutenant Harvey as a Supernumerary. I flew to Gaza and circled over the town several times at a height of about 2,000 feet. From there I proceeded to Belah and later took a course on return to the aerodrome. When about half way between Belah and Nuran the engine became rough and showed signs of seizing, becoming overheated. I thereupon landed in the desert and got out of the machine and looked over the engine but could find nothing wrong with it. I then started off again, the engine showing about 1,450 revolutions per minute. I climbed with the Capit showing 55 miles per hour and when at 400 feet I started to turn towards the direction of the Aerodrome. I banked the machine slightly and as soon as I put Rudder on the nose commenced to go down. The machine continued turning and I left the engine on. He opposite rudder produced no effect and the machine turned practically over and dove down almost vertically crashing nose first into the ground. I did not spin and it seemed to me that some of the controls had given way. After the machine had struck the ground it was facing in the same direction s that in which I took off”.
Lieutenant Taplin was conscious and able to walk following the crash, but Lieutenant Harvey was taken unconscious to an Egyptian Hospital where he died. Lieutenant Taplin later served with No. 4 Squadron and was taken as a Prisoner of War on the Western Front on 5 September 1918.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, HARVEY F
Bibliography:
Lax, M. (Mark) (editor) One Man’s War: Aircraft Mechanic Joe Bull’s Personal diaries 1916-9, Banner Books, Maryborough QLD 4650, 1997
Roberts, E.G. (Eric Glendower) (250197) Box Kites and Beyond, The Hawthorn Press Melbourne VIC 3000, 1976
Sutherland, L. W. (Leslie) Aces and Kings, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1935
Williams, Sir R. (Richard) (1) These are Facts: the Autobiography of Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams KBE, CB, DSO, Australian War Memorial and Australian Government Publishing Service, 1977 – Chapters 3-9