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Object description
Former AFPU sergeant Harry Oakes photographed by WO Giles Penfound, Chief Photographer of the successor to the AFPU, the Royal Logistic Corps Media Operations Unit, for a project to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
After service with the Royal Corps of Signals, Harry Oakes volunteered for the AFPU and served with No 5 Section in North West Europe from 1944 - 1945. He then served in South East Asia and then returned to cover the Allied Occupation of Vienna, December 1946. Equally at home using a cine or still photograph camera, he was one of the AFPU team deployed under the command of Lt H A Wilson to cover the relief of Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. He also covered the Rhein Crossing, accompanying the airborne landing of 6th Airborne Division, and the meeting of British and Soviet Forces on the Elbe. After the war, Harry Oakes worked in film and television and was special effects cameraman for the popular children's television series 'Thunderbirds' in the 1960s.
