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Malcolm Alexander Bruford HARSANT
Serial Number: NZ422066
RNZAF Trade: Pilot U/T, then Navigator
Date of Enlistment: March 1942
Rank Achieved: Flight Sergeant
Flying Hours: 179.20hrs Total (141.40hrs by day, 37.40hrs by night )
Operational Sorties: 1 Op, on which he was killedDate of Birth: 1st of March 1917, at Cambridge
Personal Details: Malcolm was the son of Reginald and Martha Caroline Harsant; of Raglan. He was educated at Te Uku District School. At school, and later, his favourite sport was rugby.He was married to Ivy Doreen Harsant, of Cambridge. After leaving school he was at first employed on his father's farm, and then he went to Auckland and joined the Auckland Herd Improvement Association as a herd tester. Before joining the RNZAF, Malcolm had been herd testing in the Cambridge district.
Service Details: Malcolm originally volunteered for active service in December 1940, but he was not taken in by the RNZAF because his work as a herd tester in the Cambridge district was considered essential for production. So he was unable to join the Air Force until March 1942. He entered at RNZAF Station Rongotai for ground training.
In October 1942 he commenced his flying training with No. 3 Elementary Flying Training School, at RNZAF Station Harewood in Christchurch. However the following month his flying training was terminated. He was then posted to RNZAF Station Rotorua, where he began training as an Air Observer (Navigator).
Malcolm embarked for Canada in May 1943, where he began his course as a Navigator at No. 7 Air Observers School, RCAF Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, on the 14th of June 1943.
He trained in the following fields during this course:
Total
Passed
During this course Malcolm flew 67.10hrs flying by day and 37.40hrs by night in Avro Ansons. He completed his course and was awarded his Air Observer's wings in October 1943.
In December 1943 he returned to New Zealand where upon arrival he then enjoyed a period of leave. By now he was a Flight Sergeant.
By February 1944 Malcolm had joined No. 31 Squadron at RNZAF Station Gisborne. The squadron flew Grumman Avengers, which were designed as torpedo bombers for the US Navy, but were actually used in a different role by the New Zealanders, dive bombing.
Crews in No. 31 Squadron were training and working up their skills ready to advance to the forward area where they would take over the work already being done by their sister squadron, No. 30 Squadron RNZAF, also in Avengers. Malcolm was assigned to a crew headed by Sergeant William Alan Trolove.
Between the 17th of February and the 12th of April 1944, the crew made 33 training and operational flights that included navigational exercises to Ohakea and back, and Tauranga and back. Also achieved was training in low level bombing on sea and land, a compass swing, formation flying to Napier and back, drogue gunnery and ventral gunnery. One trip of interest saw them leave Gisborne on the 1st of March 1944 and transit via Whenuapai, Norfolk Island, and Tontouta to Espiritu Santos in Avenger NZ2540. They delivered the Avenger to Santos, arriving on the 5th of March 1944, and began their return journey two days later as passengers in an RNZAF Hudson to Whenuapai. From there on the 10th of March they hitched a ride in Avenger NZ2541 back to Gisborne.
On the 23rd of May 1944 Malcolm and his fellow No. 31 Squadron crews departed RNZAF Station Whenuapai in C-47 Dakota NZ3505, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Winefield. They transited to Espiritu Santos that day, and the next day in the same Dakota with the same pilot they flew onto Guadalcanal.
He was only at Bougainville for a week when he went on his first operation. Sadly he did not return.
An interesting tribute to Malcolm and his fellow crew members is the RNZAF Museum's Avenger, which is painted to represent the aircraft that they lost their lives in.
Details of Death: As a navigator in a Grumman Avenger dive bomber from No 31 Squadron, RNZAF, Malcolm and his crew were conducting a strike against the Japanese-held Talili Bay supply area in Rabaul, New Britain, on the 31st of May 1944.
The aircraft, TBF-1C Avenger NZ2521, had taken off from Piva Bomber Strip, Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands, at 09.00hrs with eight others. It was hit by flak after bombing and was seen to crash in the target area. Malcolm was 27 years old
Buried at: After the war no grave sites or remains of the crew could be found. They are commemorated on Panel 6 of the Bourail Memorial.
Connection with Cambridge: Malcolm had been a resident in Cambridge before the war
Malcolm in his RNZAF uniform (photo: Sandra Chatterton)
Notes: Details of Malcolm Harsant's life and his RNZAF career have been sourced from his Flying Log Book which was kindly supplied by his daughter Sandra Chatterton, and from several newspaper cuttings from an unknown 1943 and 1944 newspaper that were supplied by his widow. The photo comes from the same source. Other details have been sourced from official records, and the Waikato Independent newspapers. Further details of this airman's death were sourced from the excellent volumes of 'For Your Tomorrow' by Errol Martyn
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