{{short description|RAF bomber pilot}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Squadron Leader | name = Henry Eric Maudslay | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DFC}} | birth_date = 21 July 1921 | death_date = 17 May 1943 (aged 21) | birth_place = Leamington Spa, England | death_place = near Emmerich am Rhein, Nazi Germany | burial_place = Reichswald Forest War Cemetery | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = Royal Air Force | service_years = 1940 - 1943 | rank = Squadron Leader | service_number = 62275 | unit = 617 Squadron | battles = Second World War *Operation Chastise {{KIA}} | awards = Distinguished Flying Cross }}
'''Henry Eric Maudslay''', DFC (21 July 1921 – 17 May 1943) was a pilot with No. 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF). He was killed in action while taking part in Operation Chastise, popularly known as the 'Dam Busters' raid.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The complete dambusters : the 133 men who flew on the dams raid|last=Foster, Charles|isbn=9780750988483|location=Stroud, Gloucestershire|oclc=1031468829|date = 2018-05-08}}</ref>
== Early life == Henry Eric Maudslay was born on 21 July 1921 at 1 Vicarage Road,<ref>A blue plaque marks the house: see http://openplaques.org/plaques/43556; see also Ian Hughes, "Blue plaques for Dambusters pilot and architect who left mark on Leamington," Leamington Observer 25 July 2017.</ref> Leamington Spa, to Reginald Maudslay (a British engineer and car manufacturer) and his wife Gwendolen.<ref name=":0" />
For his education, he first attended Beaudesert School, a preparatory school at Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire. From there, he went on to Eton College where he represented the school at athletics and rowing.<ref name=":0" /> In rowing Maudslay was made the school Captain of the Boats in 1940<ref>{{Cite news|title=Eton College|date=27 January 1940|work=The Times|issue=48524|page=9}}</ref> and he won the six mile cross country run for Eton in 35 minutes and 40 seconds.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Rackets|date=26 February 1940|work=The Times|issue=48549|page=2}}</ref> He also had success in the steeplechase, the one mile and the half mile.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Athletics|date=1 April 1940|work=The Times|issue=48578|page=3}}</ref>
== Military service ==
=== 1940-43 === Maudslay had planned to join the Royal Air Force as an officer cadet at RAF Cranwell. However, the outbreak of the Second World War led to his volunteering in May 1940.<ref name=":0" />
After pilot training in Canada, as part of the Commonwealth joint air plan, he returned to Britain in February 1941 and was posted to 44 Squadron at RAF Waddington.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|title=Deaths|work=The Times|issue=49802|page=6}}</ref>
He flew 29 operations in this period and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for an attack on two cargo ships with the cloud base dropping to 300 feet.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />
In December 1941, he and other members of the squadron were sent to RAF Boscombe Down. There he participated in service trials and other work on the new heavy bomber, the Avro Lancaster.<ref name=":0" />
Maudslay carried out training assignments till his return to combat operations at RAF Skellingthorpe with 50 Squadron on 1 January 1943. He then moved with his crew to join 617 Squadron at RAF Scampton, although not all would fly with him on the Dams raid.<ref name=":0" />
=== 617 Squadron === On 25 March 1943, Maudslay and his crew moved to join their new squadron RAF Scampton.<ref name=":0" />
He wrote to his mother:<ref name=":0" /> {{Blockquote|text=My Wing Commander here tells me that they are making me a Squadron Leader and giving me a Flight but please don't take this too seriously yet - I'm not anyway.|sign=|source=}}
==== Operation Chastise ==== [[File:Eder dam.jpg|thumb|351x351px|A view of the Edersee Dam, Germany.]]On the night of 17 May 1943, Maudslay flew as commander of B Flight in his Lancaster, call sign Z-Zebra, against the Eder Dam. The geography made the approach difficult with he and comrade Dave Shannon making several approaches.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2040290/maudslay,-henry-eric/|title=Casualty - Eric Henry Maudslay|website=www.cwgc.org|access-date=2019-10-14}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Dam Buster Raid : a Reappraisal, 70 years on.|last=Cooper, Alan.|date=2013|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=9781473828353|location=Havertown|oclc=883568495}}</ref>
When Z-Zebra's Upkeep bouncing bomb was dropped it struck the dam's parapet. It is believed that the resulting explosion damaged the aircraft. A red Very light was fired from Z-Zebra and the Squadron Leader, Guy Gibson, called out to Maudslay asking "Are you ok?" To which the faint signal came in reply, "I think so. Stand by..." which was the last known voice contact with the aircraft.<ref name=":0" />
The aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire at Emmerich before crashing near Klein-Netterden with the loss of the entire crew.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Guy Gibson dam buster|last=Simpson, Geoff, 1947-|date=2013|publisher=Pen & Sword Aviation|isbn=9781783465071|location=Barnsley, South Yorkshire|oclc=1114446951}}</ref>
Gibson wrote of Maudslay:<ref name=":4" />
{{Blockquote|text=Henry, was a born leader... a great loss, but he gave his life for a cause for which men should be proud. Boys like Henry are the cream of our youth. They die bravely and they die young.|sign=Guy Gibson|source=Enemy Coast Ahead}}
Maudslay was initially buried at Düsseldorf North Cemetery before being reburied at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery on 3 October 1946. There he rests in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Graves Concentration Report Form - Report Number BAOR/GR/CON/3248</ref>
His grave stone carries the inscription, "He died gloriously in the breaching of the Eder Dam."<ref name=":1" />
A tribute was paid in The Times by someone writing under the initials J. D. H.:<ref>{{Cite news|title=Obituary|last=J.D.H.|date=1 September 1943|work=The Times|issue=49639|page=7}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=He was always the same, at his mother's lovely home in the Cotswolds, with a crowd of Eton friends, or walking in the country with a single companion, courteous, cheerful, loyal, sincere. With his many friends and admirers, old and young alike, his memory will never die. It will be an ever fresh inspiration to aim at the highest and best in life.|sign=J. D. H.|source=The Times, 1 September 1943}}
== In popular culture == Maudslay was portrayed in the 1955 feature film 'The Dam Busters' by Richard Thorp.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Dam Busters (1955) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046889/fullcredits|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maudslay, Henry Eric}} Category:British aviators Category:1921 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Category:British World War II pilots Category:British World War II bomber pilots Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Category:Royal Air Force squadron leaders Category:Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Category:People from Leamington Spa