Sergeant Melvin Ditson, Mid-Upper Air Gunner

Melvin ‘Tom’ Ditson was born in 1915 in Stayner, Ontario.  After enlisting in the RCAF, Ditson attended #10 Bombing and Gunnery School in Mt. Pleasant, PEI in February 1944 and qualified as an air gunner in May that year.  Like the other members of the Harris crew, Ditson completed his training at RAF Peplow and RAF Blyton before being assigned to 550 Squadron on January 8, 1945.

Ditson’s first live operation was as Mid-Upper Air Gunner for Flying Officer Robert Nye and crew on January 16, 1945 on Lancaster LM182 targeting the Zeitz Oil Plant.  Ditson would fly with the Harris crew on raids to Duisburg and Pforzheim.  Injured during the Pforzheim raid and hospitalized at the No. 16 Canadian General Hospital near Birmingham, England, Ditson did not have the opportunity to fly with the Harris crew again.