H. Turner Photos

Harry Turner's Photographs

Harry Turner was from Chard, Somerset, England.
After completing his training as ground crew, he initially served with 408 Squadron in England.
He was then sent to the Iraq - Persia area.
Here he served from August 1942 until 1944.

His postings were with:
1438 Flight, 244 Squadron, the Communications Flight Iraq and Persia, 134 Maintenance Unit (MU), and 119 MU.

1438 (Strategic Reconnaissance) Flight was formed in August, 1942, and posted to Tehran in November1942. Here it relieved 1434 Flight, which was tasked with photographing oil installations and defensive positions from the Turkish frontier to Bahrein Island. In February, 1942 the flight moved to Mosel, where it photographed landing grounds. The flight was equipped with Blenheim Mk. IV's and V's.

244 Squadron, during the 1942 - 44 period was based at Sharjah and Masirah, being equipped with Mk. IV and Mk. V. Blenheims, then Wellingtons.

The Communications Flight Iraq and Persia was formed in November, 1942, and was based at Habbaniya. It had a great variety of aircraft.

134 Maintenance Unit was based at Habbaniya.

119 Maintenance Unit was based at Shaibah.

Bryan Turner, Harry's son, has kindly given permission for the photographs which Harry saved from these days to be published on the web. They provide an interesting view of a "forgotten theatre" of WWII.