Dean’s war in the air

Kyt · Apr 26, 2009

Deanâ€™s war in the air - Local News - News - General - The Islander

It was a little known theatre of World War II. Dean Stanton and his flying mates spent months bombing oil fields in Romania, flying in glorified paper planes and photographing their own handiwork.

His exploits earned him a Distinguished Flying Cross before fate brought him to Kangaroo Island 60 years ago.

Mr Stanton came from a war service family in Booleroo. Four of his uncles had been injured in World War I and he admits he had a bit of a “Boy’s Own Adventure” attitude to war when he signed up as an eager 19-year-old.

His boyhood fascination with planes led him to forge his mother’s signature on his sign-up papers so he could fly. Mr Stanton was assigned to the RAF 205 Group based in Foggia, Italy.

“I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t let it all get to me. I was never superstitious like some of the other men and nothing happened to me or my crew,” Mr Stanton said. A colleague Teddy wasn’t so lucky, dismissed form the corps for “lack of moral fibre” when he could no longer fly.

Mr Stanton witnessed plenty of tragedy, losing a mate who never returned from their last mission. His official flight records show 43 missions. There were earlier ones, but a fire destroyed the log book.

The Wellingtons they flew were a criss-cross metal construction, covered in fabric and shellacked. They weren’t nicknamed “kites” for no reason and they were highly flammable, with several burning on take-off.

The mission was to destroy the oil supply line for the German army and each mission ended with the launch of a 40,000 candle-power flare to photograph the damage.

Mr Stanton, now 87, has a collection of the photographs he took, all labelled meticulously with the time and place.

He also has kept a diary; an exercise book with pages and pages of beautiful script describing each mission and its prelude and aftermath, preserved through more than 60 years of storage.

There are a few blank pages in the middle. “We were on two weeks leave in Naples at the Hotel Cocciumella. We watched the eruption of Mt Vesuvius from our balcony. I always meant to write about it but we got back to the war and I never did,” Mr Stanton said, admitting it might have been a case of “what happens on the road, stays on the road”.

His last job in the service was to fly prisoners of war out of the Philippines. After the war, he intended to fly for Ansett. At the last minute he pulled the pin and went back to his desk job as a bank clerk in Tarlee but he was restless.

“Farmers were banking big cheques and I’d come from a farming family so I thought I’d go back to it. My boss suggested Kangaroo Island and that’s how I ended up at Stokes Bay.

“I got £10 for tools from the government. They said I didn’t qualify for a Soldier Settler block of land because I’d gone back to my bank job. I didn’t get the £1000 grant or a cheap bank loan either because they were just for the main agricultural areas.”

Mr Stanton struggled, settled, farmed and married Anne. Sons John, Richard and Paul were born. His wife died in 1978 and he settled for a quiet widower’s life at the old Turner’s house on the Stokes Bay Road.

Friends and family talked him into a European trip some years later and he met Mamie, from Chicago, also travelling.

The two corresponded and fell in love, Mamie moving and marrying to live with Dean at Stokes Bay.

“I never thought I’d marry again. At 60 it felt a bit strange to be falling in love,” Mr Stanton says.

The two will be travelling this Anzac Day but his jacket and medals have been packed for the day’s service in Geelong.
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Antipodean Andy · Apr 26, 2009

An interesting man and a copious record-keeper. Would be great to chat to.

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Dean’s war in the air

Kyt Άρης

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