F/Lt. H. M. 'Steve' Stephen was born in Elgin, Morayshire on 18th April, 1916, and educated at schools in Elgin, Edinburgh and Shrewsbury.
He travelled to London in 1931 to work with Allied Newspapers as a copy boy, and in 1936 joined the advertising staff of the London Evening Standard. A year later he joined the RAFVR and learned to fly at White Waltham. He seemed to be a born flyer, for, after only nine hours' dual instruction, he made his first solo flight.
At the outbreak of war, Harbourne was called up and posted to 605 Squadron as a Sergeant Pilot. He was commissioned and joined 74 Squadron in 1940.
On 9th August, 1940, he shot down five, and damaged three enemy aircraft.
Sunday 11th August, 1940, was the finest day of the battle for 74 Squadron, commanded by the legendary Sailor Malan and certainly a remarkable one for Harbourne, for he destroyed three Me109s, two Me110s, and probably destroyed another 109, and damaged two more, thus establishing a record score of eight victories in a single day's fighting. His first victories were scored in the morning when the squadron intercepted a number of Me109s approaching Dover.
Harbourne attacked one, which fell into the Channel, and closed on a second which, after a very short burst, from close range, exploded in mid-air. He was to recall afterwards:
"The first fight was over the Channel. There were so many targets that I was having bang after bang. I gave one blighter a bang up his jacksie and he fell in the Channel. Then I hit the leader of the formation with a short burst from close up. He exploded in mid-air, a shattering sight."
He then chased two more 109s, one of which fell away shedding pieces, but did not see this one crash, so he only claimed it as a probable. Later he used up the rest of his ammunition on another 109, which he claimed as damaged. In his next action, 40 Me110s were approaching a convoy about 12 miles east of Clacton. As they closed on the enemy formation, the German planes formed up into an enormous circle, with the object of guarding each other's tails. The Spitfires dived into the middle of the circle and then swung up and round in a circle going in the opposite direction to the Me110s. Within a few seconds the Germans broke in all directions.
Harbourne caught one with a long burst which caused the 110 to spin down in flames, and then attacked another 110, which began violent evasive action. He followed its every move, determined not to lose it, and after several minutes of twisting and turning got in a burst which caused the 110 to spiral down into the Channel. Harbourne now attacked another Me110 and scored several hits on its fuselage before breaking away to refuel and rearm. He was later to describe it as "a hell of a dogfight".
Ninety minutes later he was following Sailor Malan into another fight with 10 Ju87s and 20 Me109s near Margate. He got on the tail of one of the 109s and fired – the 109 slowed and then dived away. He followed, firing in short bursts, and saw the pilot bale out and his machine crash in flames.
On 24th May, 1940, during the British Expeditionary Force's retreat to Dunkirk, Harbourne opened his account by sharing in the destruction of a Heinkel Hs126 over the beaches and that afternoon also shared in a Dornier Do17. Two days later he got his third when he shared in the destruction of another Hs126. The following day he shot down his first Me109 and rounded off the day with the shared destruction of a Dornier. The RAF came under some criticism for its seeming inactivity over Dunkirk. Harbourne answered this without difficulty:
What Dunkirk did for air fighting was to move fighting, which we had always thought we would do from around 7,000 to 10,000ft, straight to over 20,000ft in about four days. For every time we went over we said, right we must be higher than they are, so we'd go up another 4,000ft. When we got there, they would be about 2,000ft above us. In no time at all, air fighting changed from the traditional pattern where one could see the ground, to right on top where you couldn't see it at all. This is one of the reasons, I'm sure, the Army has often said, where were the fighter pilots? We were there all right, but they couldn't see us.
On 28th July, during the early part of the Battle of Britain, 74 Squadron attacked 36 Me109s at 18,000ft over Dover, destroying seven of them. Harbourne accounted for one of these. It was the beginning of a brilliant period of air fighting for the young Scot, for during the next fortnight he destroyed 11 more enemy aircraft. He continued these successes throughout the Battle of Britain and emerged as 74 Squadron's top individual scorer. He later had this to say of this period:
We fought hard and we played hard. The great thing was that whatever time you flopped into bed someone was bound to get you up within a very few hours and expect you to be up and at it. And we were. We could cope with the hectic social life and then switch off completely and concentrate on the job in hand, never the worse for wear and always at the top of our form. We were young – that was the simple secret.
On 14th November, he engaged and destroyed a section of three Stukas and celebrated the award of a bar to his DFC the next day by damaging a Me109 over Bognor Regis. By this time the station score at Biggin Hill was nearing the 600 mark and quite naturally every pilot was hoping it would fall to his lot to shoot down the station's 600th victim. Harbourne and Mungo Park, with whom he flew many missions, shared the honours on 30th November, when they shot down a 109 at over 30,000ft: action at that height was almost unheard of at that time.
On 5th December, he shared in the destruction of a 109. The same month he was given the first ever immediate award in the field of the DSO: a remarkable award for a pilot officer.
In January, 1941, he was posted to 59 OTU at Turnhouse as Chief Flying Instructor and promoted to Flight Lieutenant. But he was soon seconded to the RAE, Farnborough, to test fly new aircraft. In June he was posted to Portreath to help form 130 Squadron, but a month later was given command of 234 Squadron, then based at Warmwell. On 15th October, he shared in the destruction of a 109F near Le Havre. This was to be his last victory of the war.
In 1942, Harbourne led 234 Squadron to Burma. In June of the same year, he became Wing Commander, flying at Dum Dum, and was then sent to Jessore. He next commanded 166 Fighter Wing on the Burma front in support of the Army, who were desperately fighting the Japanese to prevent their advance into India. In 1943, Harbourne joined Mountbatten's staff at HQ 224 Group, based in Ceylon.
Excitement always seemed to follow Harbourne. On one of the rare moments he managed to get in the air he was shot down over enemy territory but landed in a tree, which earned him the coveted membership to the Caterpillar Club. He somehow managed to evade capture and get back across the border. On his return to the UK in 1945 he left the RAF and returned to newspapers, joining the Beaverbrook Group. However, he still maintained a connection with the RAF, commanding 602 Squadron, RauxAF, from 1950 to 1952.
His tally was 9 confirmed an 8 shared.
Harbourne was awarded the D.S.O. and the D.F.C. and Bar.
Harbourne was awarded the AE for his work with the Royal Aircraft Establishment and, having left the RAF in 1945, returned to his working in the Newspaper industry eventually managing the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph.
