WIP painting of NE148 (AA-H) which was flown by Noel Stokes,

[longforgan]

This is my second painting for 75 squadron. Thanks to Dave Homewood I have decided to dedicate it to Noel Stokes. This is what Dave wrote for me. NE148 (AA-H) which was flown by Noel Stokes, on the night of 29th of July 1944 on the way to bomb the Daimler-Benz and Bosch factories in Stuttgart, Germany,when they were attacked by a night fighter. The rear gunner Norman Wilding (UK) was killed and the aircraft set on fire and became uncontrollable. When the rest of the crew, including 2nd Pilot Jack Morris of Cambridge who's still alive today in Auckland, were ordered to bail out, its captain Noel Stokes stayed with the stricken bomber and manouvre it in such a way to save it from crashing onto a French village below. Stokes and Wilding are now considered heroes of France and are honoured every year by the various villages around their crash site with a proper Memorial ceremony. Perhaps this doesn't fit in specifically with the Rhine title(?) but it might be a nice story to connect to the artwork? The Lancaster carried a Donald Duck nose art and was named Howzat!
I still have to put the markings on and the props and finish off the lower lancaster. This photo is a lot closer to the colour of the painting.

[skyhawkdon]

Great choice of aircraft and crew guys and lovely art work Don.

[pjw4118]

Nice artwork again Don.

Here's a little more on Jack Morris. He finished LFS on 26 July and was posted to Mepal. Two nights later was his "second dickie" ops experience with F/Lt Stokes.

Page for that flight follows



He and three crew got to a marquis camp in Orleans and 'just walked' into US forces. He was taken by an ASR lanuch to Calshot and by October 19 was back at 1651 HCU to crew up again.

Johns second crew at HCU before posting to 15 Sq.



His adventures weren't over as operational with 15 Squadron he was shot down again in PD419, LS-V on February 3 1945 during a raid on Dortmund



Sgts Alan Taylor and EC (Toby) Temperton (both kiwis) were posted missing.
This time Jack didn't get away eventually being freed by US Forces again, when their camp in S Germany (Mauseberg?) was captured.

Post war Jack transferred to the Army where he felt he had a secure future.

[longforgan]

Thanks for the extra info I really like doing these paintings as its a way of remembering what this generation has done for us.

Today I did a website its www.artistdonwilkie.co.nz if anyone is interested.

[fwx]

The Navigator on this op' was F/O George Herbert Sanders RNZAF, NZ424242.
Apparently a copy of his logbook is in the Air Force Museum of New Zealand Collection held at Wigram, Christchurch.

I came across this description of the item on



"Ref. No. 41. FLYING LOGBOOK FOR AIRCREW OTHER THAN PILOT. Previously owned by F/O George Herbert Sanders RNZAF. NZ424242. Navigator. First entry 19.3.43 flying in Anson in Canada. Includes war operations on Lancasters with No. 75 Squadron. Last flight on 28.7.44 "Stuttgart" - reported missing in Lancaster III 'H'. Signed by Wing Commander R. J. A. Leslie, DSO, AFC and Flying Officer G. Kennedy, OC of 'A' Flight.

Sanders went missing on operations during the night of 28 July 1944 while flying aboard a 75 (NZ) Squadron Lancaster 1 NE148 AA-H. The aircraft, which had departed Mepal, Cambridgeshire at 2155, and was part of 3 Group, was on a bombing operation, along with 493 other Lancasters and two Mosquito aircraft, to Stuttgart in southern Germany. Shortly after crossing the lower Rheine, NE148 was attacked by a night-fighter. During the attack, cannon shells ripped through the length of the fuselage, one shell going through the mid-upper turret and cutting Flight Sergeant M. K. P. Drummond’s helmet off at the ear and burning a line across his head. The rear gunner, Sergeant N. V. Wilding, an RAF aircrewman from Monmouthshire, was killed during the attack.

With the port inner engine on fire, the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Noel Alfred Deal Stokes (born Christchurch 31 December 1918) turned the crippled Lancaster around and jettisoned the bomb load. The bomber then began to dive steeply and a fire started in the bomb bay, filling the aircraft with acrid smoke. It took the combined strength of Stokes and the second pilot, Flying Officer J. M. Morris, both of whom had their feet on the instrument panel, to pull the aircraft out of the dive.

As NE148 continued across France, the fires continued to spread and Stokes ordered his crew to abandon the aircraft. Drummond hit his head on the tailplane while baling out and was knocked unconscious. He came to near tree-top height and pulled his ripchord at the last second. The opening parachute arrested his fall but he landed heavily and was badly injured. He was picked up by patriots, who sheltered him until the Americans captured the district.

Morris was the last to exit the aircraft safely, his chute opening seconds before the bomber crashed beneath him. Stokes, who had maintained control of the aircraft long enough to allow his crew to bail out, died in the crash. His bravery was unrecognised by any posthumous award.

Morris, along with the F/O G. H. Sanders (navigator), F/Sgt N. T. Sampson (bomb aimer) and F/Sgt W. G. Raynel (wireless operator), managed to evade capture with the help of the French Resistance.

NE148 crashed close to the village of Yevres, 2km east of Brou and 35km south-west of Chartres. The bodies of Stokes and Wilding were buried in a joint grave near the centre of the north wall in the Yevres Communal Cemetry, Eure-et-Loir, France. The cemetery is on the northern side of the village on the D.921 road to Illiers.

Sanders survived the war."

Cheers, Chris

[tuibennett]

Good Evening,
My name is Tui Bennett,  My mother's cousin was a Lancaster pilot called Noel Stokes who is buried in a little ville called Yevres.  I visited his grave thanks to the kindness of people in Yevre and saw where Noel crashed the aircraft.  I note that there is a street named after him.  I would be very pleased to hear anyone who knew him, and that includes friends and relatives.  My mother has fond memories of this young man who was at the time much younger and on her behal I would like to learn more about him.
Tui

[bevansmith]

Hello Tui, I am a great nephew of Noel Stokes through his older sister Jean Smith and her son Newall Smith. I have had an interest in this story most of my life and am intending to attend the 75th anniversary of the crash in Yevres in a couple of months time. I have all sorts of stuff on this including Noel's medals, diaries and log book. The last two I have digitized if you would like to have a read.

[pjw4118]

Hi Bevan , I would certainly like to see the diary and log book and if possible add them to the file in the NZ Bomber Command Ass archives . Please PM me for email address.

[pjw4118]

Here's a shot of Hells Angel flown by Noel Stokes. Photo from Joe Tomlin (NZBCA Archives)

[ErrolC]

Jul 29, 2019 12:09:52 GMT 12 pjw4118 said:

Here's a shot of Hells Angel flown by Noel Stokes. Photo from Joe Tomlin (NZBCA Archives)

What's with the reversed swastika?

[pjw4118]

Errol . I am unsure , as a normal swastika means a claim , the Stokes crew had damaged fighters before , maybe Chris can sort it out ,,,,,,or the painter just got it wrong !

[fwx]

Hi Errol, Yes the swastika represented a claim as destroyed - you would have to ask the artist why he painted it on backwards! Unfortunately I can't track down any details of who shot what down and when ...

There has been some confusion created by this photo's caption, said to be Noel Stokes' aircraft, which was Lancaster NE148, AA-H, "Howzat!".

However NE148 was shot down on her 19th op' and as you can see by the bomb markings, this aircraft completed at least 32 op's.

This photo is in fact her successor, HK593, AA-H, aka. "Hell's Angel".

She was re-coded JN-X in February 1945 after the previous JN-X, ND801 was destroyed over-shooting the Mepal runway and crashing into the rear of a Sutton bakery, taking out a baker's van and chicken coop at the same time. Fortunately no-one killed.

This well-known IWM photo shows HK593 on 9 Feb. 45, immediately after re-coding but before flying in anger as JN-X - you can see the "Hell's Angel" and artwork were removed (presumably because they no longer made sense with the "X" code) but the backwards swastika survived:

[pjw4118]

To add to the story , HK593 was recorded at 75 SQ in July 44 , coded as JN-X , to 46 MU in June 45 and scrapped in Sept 46.75 sq in July 44, From Harry Holmes The Definitive Record.

[bevansmith]

Hi all, nice work around the Hells Angel confusion. Does anyone have a picture of Howzat?

[bevansmith]

Looking at Noel's Logbook it shows the following. In brackets is the number of missions from that date. The question is were Lanc I and Lanc III Howzat and Hells Angel?

Bevan

May 21 - Lancaster III (2)
May 23 - Lancaster I (7)
May 30 - Lancaster III (1)
May 31 - Lancaster I (7)
June 8 - Lancaster III (1)
June 10 - Lancaster I (6)
June 30 - Lancaster III (5)
July 15 - Lancaster I (1)
July 17 - Lancaster III (9)
July 28 - Lancaster III (Missing)

[fwx]

Hi Bevan,

No, Noel never flew HK593 "Hell's Angel", she arrived on the squadron only four days before he was shot down.

In his logbook, the op's flown with NE148 "Howzat" are the ones marked with an "H" in the "No." column.

ie., 2 July, 5 July, 9 July, 17 July, 18 July (twice), 20 July, 23 July, 24 July and 28 July.

You can see Noel's operational history here (https://75nzsquadron.wordpress.com/n-a-d-stokes-crew-24-5-44-%e2%80%a0/), but unfortunately that list also wrongly attributes the nickname "Hell's Angel" to NE148.

I will see if I can get that mistake corrected!

Cheers, Chris

[bevansmith]

Thanks so much Chris,

So does anyone have a picture of Howzat? Would love to see one if at all possible.

Bevan

[fwx]

I've not seen one, but there could be one out there somewhere ... my understanding is that it depicted Donald Duck bowling or throwing a bomb - the "Howzat" referring to an appeal for 'out' in cricket.

[Dave Homewood]

There is a photo of the Howzat nose art in the little book "No Glory Without Effort" ("Pas de Gloire Sans Effort") By Glyn Strange. I cannot lay my hands on my copy right now, but I am sure someone here will have a copy, I think Peter Wheeler has it?

[bevansmith]

Hi all, I have just returned from the 75th commemoration service in Yevres. Also there was Glyn Strange with the latest version of the book - No Glory Without Effort. He has corrected some initial inaccuracies, added more pictures and provided quite a bit of technical information he has gleaned by some people in France who know a lot about the German radar stations and the various airfields the Luftwaffe were operating out of. There is even a discussion about who may have shot Howzat narrowing it down to 3 or 4 possibilities.

While there we met a couple who have an interest in the story. Her parents we part of the resistance and hid John Morris in the school where they were teachers. He had photos of American tanks in Yevres during the liberation.