History In Detail: Squadron Leader Basil Gerald 'Stampe' Stapleton

The first History in Detail feature is going to take a look at the man behind one of the options in the latest release of the Airfix 1:72 scale Typhoon Ib kit (A02041). Typhoon MP126, is depicted in the markings it carried during December 1944 when it was flown by Squadron Leader Basil Gerald 'Stampe' Stapleton of No.247 (Chino-British) Squadron (RAF).

Typhoon MP126
Source: Airfix

With his handlebar moustache and, described by fellow airman Richard Hillary as “over six feet tall, thick-set, with a mass of blond hair which he never brushed”[1], Stapleton must have been very much the quintessential, bold, adventurous RAF fighter pilot one imagines from that time.

By the time Stapleton was flying MP126, adorned with a Nazi swastika topped by a burning eagle and unofficially named "Excreta Thermo"[2], he had been at war for five years. For four of those years he’d been an Ace, gaining six kills and two shared while flying Spitfires with No.603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron during the Battle of Britain, an achievement which saw him awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.[3] One of those shared kills has long since been debated by writers and historians, many believing that it was the Messerschmitt Bf 109 of Oberleutnant Franz Von Werra, “the one that got away.” It even appears that, while remembering the combat itself, at the time, Stapleton wasn’t aware of the identity of the pilot of the aircraft. In fact the point when he exactly found out it was Von Werra also seems to be up for debate, with author Dilip Sarkar claiming he informed Stapleton of the pilot’s identity[4] and David Ross, who would later be Stapleton’s biographer, claiming Stapleton had learnt of Von Werra’s identity soon after the end of the war.[5]

Gerald Stapleton

While Aces tend to be associated with a certain invincibility his time in the Battle of Britain was not without incident. Shot down after believing he was out of range of the guns of an approaching Messerschmitt he recalled how he abruptly realised that this was not the case when a cannon shell suddenly stuck the starboard wing of his Spitfire between the two guns. As ammunition started spilling out of the wing and glycol from the punctured radiator started spraying into his cockpit he took the decision to make a forced landing in a field. The landing was by his account too fast, but successful, and after leaving his aircraft he encountered a family in their car who offered him a cup of tea before driving him, and another pilot who landed by parachute, to a nearby pub.[6]

The carefree attitude that typified pilots like Stapleton may seem strange to those of us living in the relative comfort of today's world. Looking back he declared those days as great fun in which each occasion was lived like it was the last.[7] Indeed his explanation as to how he and other pilots coped with the loss of so many fellow pilots in such a short space of time appears to show a certain amount of detachment, even a slight coldness, to what was happening around them. He explained:

“The Battle of Britain didn’t affect us... It’s a strange thing to look back on it and think, “Why didn’t we grieve more for the chaps that were missing?” And you never knew whether they’d been killed or whether they’d jumped out or crash-landed. And by the time the news came through that they had been killed, so much had happened in between that it had no effect on you whatsoever, none.”[8]

Following the conclusion of the Battle of Britain Stapleton went on to fly catapult Hurricanes with the Merchant Ship Fighter unit, standard Hurricanes and then Hawker Tempests with No.257 Squadron before acquiring his own command of a rocket Typhoon unit with No.247 Squadron, based at Eindhoven.[9] Compared to flying a small agile fighter such as a Hurricane or Spitfire the much larger Typhoon would prove to be an altogether different experience. As he recalled:

“The first thing that stuck me when I climbed into a Typhoon was that you had to get used to the height you were sitting at. On take-off the Typhoon swung the opposite way to the Hurricane and Spitfire, so we had to unlearn that which had become second nature to us.”[10]

The move to the Typhoon meant there would be very little of the dog fighting that had typified the earlier years of the war. While in the eyes of the public there might have been a certain glamour attached to those battles with the Luftwaffe fighters the growing Allied dominance of the skies over Europe meant a changing, but no less important role for many pilots like Stapleton. For them the focus would now be the important task of supporting the ground troops in a ground attack role took precedence as the Allies advanced through Normandy and North-West Europe. The rocket and strafing attacks carried out by the Typhoons left no room for error but were used to devastating effect and in his own words he described the Typhoon as “a tremendous ground attack aircraft.”[11]

Gerald Stapleton & MP126 "Excreta Thermo." MP126 was lost
in a forced landing on the 5th December 1944 after being borrowed
by Flg Off Wiersum (who was captured) [12]

Moving fast and low there was almost no chance of bailing out of a damaged aircraft. It was here that his luck would run out. On December the 23rd 1944 he attacked a train at low level, with rockets, and the shrapnel from the resulting explosion punctured his Typhoon’s radiator leaving him with no choice but to force land his aircraft. Certainly his previous experience of a forced landing during the Battle of Britain would have helped; but this time it was behind enemy lines. Looking back on the incident, possibly with a hint of self-deprecating humour, he said:

“I wasn’t shot down, I suppose I shot myself down when I flew through the debris.”[13]

Captured he would spend the rest of the war as a prisoner in Stalag Luft I until its liberation by the advancing Soviet Army in May 1945.[14] No doubt during this time he chance to reflect on his luck something which he felt decided every pilot’s fate:

“You thought it’s never going to happen to you. That’s what you live with… I was lucky enough to get away with it. And that’s absolute luck. If anybody tells you any different, they don’t know what they’re talking about… With hindsight, it becomes more apparent that it was luck rather than skill.”[15]

Later in life he became enthusiastic supporter of the Battle of Britain Memorial flight and in 2007 a Spitfire of the Memorial Flight wore the markings of one his wartime aircraft.[16] He died in 2010 at the age of 89.


References

 1. Hillary, R. (2005) The Last Enemy. [Online] Available from: Project Gutenberg Australia [Accessed 18 February 2017]

 2. The Telegraph (2010) Squadron Leader 'Stapme' Stapleton. [Online] Available from: The Telegraph [Accessed 18 February 2017]

 3. The London Gazette (1944) Royal Airforce, 34993, p.6570.

 4. Sarkar, D (2013) Spitfire Voices. [Online] Available from: Google Books [Accessed 25 February 2017]

 5. Ross, D (2003) Richard Hillary: The Authorised Biography of a Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot and Author of The Last Enemy. [Online] Available from: Google Books [Accessed 1 March 2017]

 6. Davidson, M. and Taylor, J. (2004) Spitfire Ace: Flying the Battle Of Britain. Pan Macmillan: London, pp.169-70

 7. The Scotsman (2010) Obituary: 'Stapme' Stapleton DFC, RAF pilot during Second World War. [Online] Available from: The Scotsman [Accessed 28 February 2017]

 8. Davidson and Taylor, Spitfire Ace. p.175

 9. Thomas, C (1999) Typhoon and Tempest Aces of World War 2. Osprey Publishing: Oxford, p.62

 10. Rowley, C (2014) D-Day RAF: The RAF’s Part in the Great Invasion. Mortons: Horncastle, p.52

 11. Ibid.

   12. Thomas, C (2010) Typhoon Wings of 2nd TAF 1943-45. Osprey Publishing: Oxford, p.78

 13. Rowley, D-Day RAF: The RAF’s Part in the Great Invasion. p.52

 14. The Telegraph, Squadron Leader 'Stapme' Stapleton.

 15. Davidson and Taylor, Spitfire Ace. pp.180-1

 16. Air-Scene UK (2007) Happy Birthday BBMF! [Online] Available from: Air-Scene [Accessed 18 February 2017]