Sunday - June 17, 2012

his war decorations to go on sale. the derring do of one battling brit

Gosh what a story. And look at the war decorations this guy earned.

I think it’s sad that his son is selling all the memorabilia.  Maybe I’m just dumb about stuff like this.

My late hero uncle (to me he was always that, even when we didn’t agree on other things) gave me a few item he flew with, including the headset he wore on missions.  Lost now in a move somehow. I can’t even find the crew photo with the plane anymore. Those little items still bother me. So it’s a sure bet I wouldn’t sell the medals if I had them.  Who knows. If I couldn’t hold onto the two I did have after 40 some years, I might have lost these also.
Anyway, this is one impressive story. He even looks the part. Have you noticed how often the guys looked like the dashing heroes they were?

Take a look.

Medals of the ace who never knew he was beaten

Squadron Leader Mike Stephens was climbing out of his burning Hurricane high above the Western Desert. He had been injured in both feet and much of his fighter’s engine and half the cockpit had been shot away by an enemy aircraft.

Group Captain Mike Stephens’s Distinguished Service Order; Distinguished Flying Cross, with two bars; 1939-45 Star, clasp, Battle of Britain; Air Crew Europe star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Defence and war medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953 and a Malta, 50th Anniversary Medal 1942-92 Photo: BNPS

But when the Luftwaffe pilot who had attacked him flew past, Stephens climbed back into his plane and shot the enemy Messerschmitt down.
It was only then that he jumped to safety, and by that stage he was on fire himself. He beat the flames out as he parachuted to the ground, landing just 300 yards from the German front line. He hobbled towards friendly lines in the Western Desert before being picked up by Polish troops.
Stephens was awarded a Distinguished Service Order for his heroics. He was just 22 years old.

The action, in December 1941, over Acroma, Libya, was one of many acts of bravery carried out by the “ace” who shot down an estimated 22 enemy aircraft during the war.
As well as the DSO, he won the Distinguished Flying Cross with two bars.

His medals, as well as other mementoes including his log book, photographs and a flying helmet with oxygen mask are being sold by his son, and are expected to sell for £50,000 at the Dix Noonan Webb saleroom in Mayfair, London, on June 27-28.

Stephens, who went on to become a group captain, holds a special place in wartime aviation because he was admitted to three informal “clubs” for RAF pilots.
They were the Caterpillar Club, for those who bailed out with a parachute; the Goldfish Club, for those who bailed out into water; and the Flying Boot Club, for those who came down in the desert and had to walk to friendly lines.

David Erskine-Hill, of Dix Noonan Webb, said: “The remarkable wartime career of Mike Stephens epitomises the sustained gallantry displayed by the young pilots of Fighter Command.
It was a career encompassing several hundred combat sorties and the award of four decorations for gallantry – only 15 airmen received the combination of a DSO and DFC with 2 Bars in the 1939-45 war.”

Stephens graduated from RAF Cranwell, Lincs, in 1939 and was posted to France where he was quickly in the thick of the action, shooting down enemy planes.
Returning from his final sortie in France he had 6in shot off one of his propeller blades but landed the unsteady machine at the airfield.

When told that he could not take off with the propeller damage and the plane would have to be destroyed, he had 6in taken off the other end of the propeller and flew it back to Britain.

He saw service in Turkey and north Africa and, in October 1942, volunteered to go to Malta where he came close to death again, as his logbook records.
He wrote: “Squirting 109 good and proper, got him smoking when a Spit (Stead) pulled up in front of me, so had to stop. Shot the port wing off another at 7,000, then later was bounced by a 109 who damaged my engine. Flew on a little way and then had to bail out. Trouble with dinghy, picked up after 3 hours. Moral – know your dinghy drill!”

He did not add that the dinghy operation was made especially difficult by the fact that he kept his left hand in the air throughout because he was wearing a watch that his parents had bought him and he did not want to break it.

In May 1943 Stephens was awarded his third DFC and returned home and saw no further action. He retired from the RAF in 1960 and worked in the aero-engines division of Rolls-Royce in Paris.
He retired with his wife Violet to the south of France before they returned to live out their days in Britain. She died in 2000 and he died in 2004, aged 84.

SOURCE, TELEGRAPH

Posted by peiper     on 06/17/2012 at 11:07 AM   
Filed Under: • UK • War-Stories •  
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