Harold F. Norris was born on June 7, 1923, in Transylvania County, North Carolina. He was the son of Carl Fanning Norris and Ola Willie Galloway Norris. He served in the 532nd Bomb Squadron, 381st Bomb Group, as a Staff Sergeant and Tail Gunner on the B-17 #42-97594 "Dry Gulcher" during World War II.

Their plane had left Ridgewell Airfield near the village of Shalford and was carrying incendiary bombs which it was to drop on the V2 rocket factory and launch site at Peenemunde in NE Germany. An electrical fault is thought to have caused a fire shortly after take-off and the plane crashed and exploded in a field next to St Andrew's Church, Shalford. Nine of the American crew parachuted to safety but Staff Sgt Harold Norris, the tail gunner, was trapped and died.

SSgt Norris is now buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov, www.alamy.com