Stephen, Raymond Thomas
Personal Information
Rank | W/O |
Forename(s) | Raymond Thomas |
Surname | Stephen |
Gender | M |
Age | 24 |
Decorations | |
Date of Death | 29-07-1944 |
Next of Kin | Son of Alfred John Watson Stephen and Mary Craighead Stephen, of Ripponden, Yorkshire. |
Aircraft Information
Aircraft | Short Stirling I |
Serial Number | W7514 |
Markings | LS-B |
Memorial Information
Burial/Memorial Country | Poland |
Burial/Memorial Place | Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery |
Grave Reference | 6. A. 6. |
Epitaph | TRANQUIL YOU LIE... YOUR MEMORY HALLOWED IN THE LAND YOU LOVED |
IBCC Memorial Information
Phase | 2 |
Panel Number | 247 |
Enlistment Information
Service Number | 944044 |
Service | Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve |
Group | 3 |
Squadron | 15 (XV) |
Trade | Flight Engineer |
Country of Origin | United Kingdom |
Other Memorials
Location | RAF Wyton Memorial Garden, Wyton, Cambridgeshire |
Country | United Kingdom |
Memorial Type | Memorial Stone & Inscribed Metal Plaque |
Memorial Text | Commemorating the Pathfinder Sqns operating from RAF Wyton, 1942-1945 |
Miscellaneous Information
Originally crashed 26/4/42 and was taken PoW. Killed by a lightning strike in Stalag Luft IV (Gross Tychow). Others were also hit but survived. |
PoW number 357 |
Percy Carruthers DFM MiD recalled "I have never experienced a thunderstorm of such severity. The rain was torrential and continuous. The thunder and lighning were severe and simultaneous, well beyond that normally experienced. The dog kennels shook with the vibration, and the field became totally flooded, large lakes of water forming all around. Lightning became extremely intense as the heart of the storm approached nearer by the minute and lower it seemed by each succeeding flash. One eye-piercing flash brought disaster. Dogs kennels were hit and shattered. The lightning caught the nails which held the kennels together, turning them blue with heat and charring the wood around them. The kennels would then collapse into heaps of individual planks of wood, the heads of some of the occupants peeping out from the piles. |
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The National Archives
Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/203/32 |
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/203/31 |
Fellow Servicemen
Last Operation Information
Start Date | 25-04-1942 |
End Date | 26-04-1942 |
Takeoff Station | Wyton |
Day/Night Raid | Night (72% moon) |
Operation | Rostock. 110 aircraft to bomb the town and 18 to bomb the Heinkel factory. The former was bombed heavily and the latter was hit for the first time by 106 Sqn under Guy Gibson |
Reason for Loss | Abandoned after being attacked by an Me110 |