Harris Horder

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Harris Henry Horder (born September 12, 1900 in Peak Hill , † August 8, 1943 in Port Moresby ) was an Australian cyclist and American soldier .

Athletic career

Harris Horder was active as a cyclist from 1918 to 1937. In 1921 he won the sprint classic Grand Prix de l'UVF . In 1922 he started at the World Railroad Championships in Paris and was eliminated in the first round. In 1927 Horder became the American sprint champion. He also started in 27 six-day races . Even though he won the six-day race in Boston together with Alex McBeath in 1926 , the "trained" sprinter Horder could not convince as a six-day driver. So he started in November 1930 with the Canadian Lew Elder in the Berlin six-day race ; but the duo dropped out prematurely. Six-day organizer John Chapmann publicly criticized Horder's performance after he complained about poor pay.

With the US Air Force

Horder accepted US citizenship, exactly when is unknown. During the Second World War he served in the United States Army Air Forces as a rear gunner. He has received several awards, including the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for gallantry in action . It is said that General George C. Kenney said at the Silver Star ceremony while pinning the star on Horder's chest: “ Horder, you keep on shootin 'them down, and I'll keep pinnin' them on. "

On August 8, 1943, Harris "Skippy" Horder crashed during a reconnaissance flight in bad weather together with the twelve-person crew on board a Liberator , called "Big Emma", near Port Moresby in New Guinea . The last message was that the crew would jump out. The entire crew was killed in the crash in mangrove swamps . The recovery of the bodies was difficult because the water had to be pumped out at the crash site. Horder is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu .

Private

Harris Horder came from a cycling family. His father George Horder (1878-1956) was Australian champion, his brother Horace (1902-1949) also drove six days. Both sons died before their father. Harris Horder was married twice, his first marriage to Ada, from whom he separated in 1926 when it was discovered that she was already married. In 1940 he married his second wife Maud in Sydney .

Trivia

Horder was a boyish, petite man. In the United States he met the illustrator Percy Crosby and told him about his time as a newspaper delivery man in Australia. These stories inspired Crosby to write his popular comic strip Skippy , the title character of which is a petite schoolboy.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ memoire-du-cyclisme.eu
  2. ↑ Werner Ruttkus / Wolfgang Schoppe : Rundkreisel & Berliner Luft: On the trail of the Berlin six-day race . Wünsdorf 2011. p. 253
  3. ^ Peter Joffre Nye: The Six-Day Bicycle Races . America's Jazz Age Sport. San Francisco 2006, p. 62, with an illustration by Horder on p. 60
  4. ↑ a b The Sydney Morning Herald , August 19, 1943
  5. ↑ Translation: "You keep shooting them down, and I'll stick them on."
  6. ↑ pacificwrecks.com
  7. ^ Singleton Argus , April 8, 1938

literature

  • Roger de Maertelaere: Mannen van de Nacht , Eeklo 2000, p. 216.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Horder, Harris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Horder, Harris Henry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian cyclist and American soldier
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Peak Hill
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1943
Place of death Port Moresby