In memory of Stanley Plaskett
In memory of Stanley Plaskett
Stanley Plaskett was born in Bangor in September 1920, writes Adrian Hughes. His parents were Clive and Margaret Plaskett. During the Second World War he was commissioned in the RAF Volunteer Reserve and served with bomber command in 106 Squadron.
On the night of the 30April 1943, his Lancaster bomber took off from RAF Syerston near Newark in Nottinghamshire to take part in a mission against the German city of Essen. Stanley was the Air-Bomber on the plane that evening and he would have been responsible for guiding the bombs onto their target. On this raid, made up of a force of 305 British aircraft, the target was the Krupp steelworks. In the heart of the industrial Ruhr Valley, these steelworks made tanks, artillery, naval guns, armour plate, munitions and other armaments for the German military. Disrupting this production was vital to the British war effort.
Stanley’s Lancaster was hit by flak and crashed at Wulfen, a small town on the River Wient near Dorsten and only 29km from Essen. All seven crew members were killed and are now buried in Reichswald Cemetery. Stanley was 22 years old. The mission was deemed a success by the RAF. The Krupp factory had been damaged but the raid cost 12 aircraft; 81 crewmen were killed, two were injured and a further 17 made prisoners of war.
The photo, from The Aircrew Remembrance Society, shows the crew of the Lancaster bomber. Stanley is second from the left.
