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]

Build Review - Airfix Hawker Typhoon Ib (A02041) – Part 2

For me one of the main objectives of this build was learning to paint late WWII RAF colours correctly. My initial attempt on an Airfix Spitfire had not gone according to plan. Having finally built a Typhoon to my satisfaction I was determined that this time I would get the painting right.

I started by undercoating in a light Tamiya Grey and by pre-shading the panel lines with a flat black. I'm still not 100% convinced that this is worth doing.

Pre-shading

While it seemed to have some effect on the lower, and lighter, surfaces of this particular model it didn't really seem to make much difference on the upper, camouflaged, surfaces. Also I felt that with effect could also be achieved by post-shading and by washes later in the build.

On to painting proper and the undersides. The actual colour for the undersides of RAF aircraft is called Medium Sea Grey. To achieve this I used the following:

1. A base coat of Vallejo MA (Model Air) Barley Grey (71.051). I tried to make sure some of the black panel lines showed through.
2. Vallejo MA Pale Blue Grey (71.046) to the centre of each panel.
3. A thin coat, sprayed at lower pressure, of Vallejo MA Medium Sea Grey (71.049) to selected panel lines to add a slight bit of variation.

RAF Medium Sea Grey & Invasion Stripes

Another objective of this build had been the airbrushing of D-Day invasion stripes. Although this kit came with decals many don't so I thought this would be a good time to practice. The colours used were:

1. An mix of Vallejo MA White and Aged White (71.001 & 71.132). How much depends on how yellow you want it to look. This was applied over the whole area and then masked off in order for the black to be sprayed. It really pays to make sure the masking is tight here, especially in the numerous panel lines.
2. The black was Tamiya Nato Black (XF-69). I prefer using this shade of black at this scale as it's a muted black compared to the XF-1 Black which looks too bright to me.

And with that the lower surfaces were done. I hadn't done the rear invasion stripes yet, as they overlapped onto the upper camouflaged areas.

For the upper surfaces the RAF colours are Ocean Grey and Dark Green. I decided this time to use Tamiya's RAF colours as my starting point (XF81, 82 & 83). If you look the instructions for older Tamiya kits you will see they were all mixes. These are more recent paints which Tamiya brought out to be used with their 1:32 scale Spitfire kits

Starting with the Ocean Grey, this was applied all over and highlighted in the areas that wouldn't be covered with the Dark Green.

1. Tamiya Ocean Grey 2 (XF-82) was mixed with slight amount of Medium Sea Grey (XF-83). The main reason for adding the Meduim Sea Grey was that I felt the base surface with black pre-shade was a bit too dark. Without the pre-shade I would have probably used The Ocean Grey on it's own.
2. I then highlighted panel lines etc with Vallejo MA Barley Grey (71.051). Unfortunately the picture below was taken in bad light and doesn't really show this well.

RAF Ocean Grey

For the Dark Green:

1. I put down a coat of Tamiya Field Grey (XF-65) with a small amount of Dark Green 2 (XF-81). The reason for this was it muted the blue tones from the grey which I was spraying on top of. In previous attempts the green seemed a bit off if I just used XF-81 over the Ocean Grey.
2. I then highlighted the green by using Dark Green (XF-81) on it's own. Of course if you choose to spray each colour over the undercoat, rather than spray an all over Ocean Grey coat, you could probably use this colour on it's own.

RAF Dark Green & Invasion Stripes

The Sky coloured band was then added to the rear fuselage, this was simply Tamiya Sky (XF-21). The invasion stripes were painted the same as before. The one thing I will say is that I found the invasion stripes to the rear fuselage incredibly difficult to do. Getting them straight took numerous attempts due to the curvature of the surface I was applying them to and it used far too much masking tape. It was not helped by the fact that the whole model was masked at this point and fairly hard to judge their position when I had very little of the model exposed.

In the end I had to remove the excess paint with a wooden toothpick in order to get them straight. With hindsight I think would be better to do this first and then mask off the whole invasion band area and spray the camouflage around it.

Despite this last bit killing my enthusiasm for some time I have to say I'm satisfied with the result. I achieved the two things I wanted to, spraying accurate RAF colours and spraying the invasion stripes.

Now onto the decals.

D-Day 70th Anniversary (& Invasion Stripes)

Today of course is the the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Rather than modelling I've been reading numerous articles and looking at many photos of this historic day and one particular photo has caught my eye, from a modelling perspective.

Reading the account that goes with the photo it tells how ground crews were only told the night before that they had to paint invasion stripes and so used anything from paint brushes to brooms to get the job done. And then, of course, being England there was a storm and it rained all over their paintwork...

So from a modelling perspective I was wondering. Is this the one time when we modellers don't want a fine airbrush finish? Would a rough brush finish actually turn out a more accurate model?