106 Sqn. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
177861
Killed in action, 5 July 1944, France. Aged 21.
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Stanley Montague Futcher was born in Churchill, Somerset in 1923, the eldest son of Montague (from Exeter) and Catherine Futcher (nee Grose) who later lived in Bullbeggars Lane, Horsell. He was educated at Franklin House School in Palmers Green and Wood Green County School in London before the family moved to Woking where he then attended the County School from 1936. He left school in 1940 to work as a junior clerk in the Woking Branch of Barclays Bank.
In 1941 Stanley enlisted with the RAFVR and received his flight training in Canada. He was gazetted as Pilot Officer in June 1944 and was posted with 106 Sqn. Bomber Command based at RAF Metheringham in Lincolnshire. Guy Gibson, leader of the famous Dambusters raid had earlier been base commander.
In June 1944 the Germans launched a new terror weapon on southern England, the V-1 rocket or doodlebug. An unmanned flying rocket fired from ‘ski’ launch sites along the French and Dutch coasts. It was capable of mass and somewhat random destruction in populated areas.
Saint-Leu-d’Esserent in northern France was built on the chalk of Picardy. Near the town was an underground cave system which in the peaceful pre-war years had served to grow mushrooms. The Germans had adapted it as a hidden storage site for V-1 rockets.
News of the rocket depot was soon passed to British Intelligence by the French Resistance. On the evening of 4 July M. and Mme. Bonnaventure of St. Leu were going about their business as crossing keepers on the railway outside the depot gates. Had they been secretly listening to BBC radio that night they would have heard their names broadcast. Their surname had been chosen as a code to warn the local population of the impending bombing raid - ‘Ce soir nous irons a la bonne aventure’, (Tonight we go on a good adventure).
Back at Metheringham Lancaster ME832 took to the air at 2325. The massed formation of 231 Lancasters and 15 Mosquitos formed in the bright moonlit sky over England and headed out over the channel. ‘Bombs away’ was planned for 0145.
Once over France the Luftwaffe began to harass the formation in the clear skies. This was no ‘milk run’. Two Lancasters (of 463 and 57 Sqn.) were lost. At 0130 ME832 became the third bomber lost that night. It was shot down and crashed into woodland 2 km SW of the village of St Germain-le-Poterie.* Only one of the crew of seven survived. Thirteen Lancasters were lost that night including two from 103 Sqn.
The crew of ME832 were as follows:
Pilot Officer Stanley Futcher - Aged 21 from Woking. KIA.
Sgt. (Flt. Eng.) Ronald Bentley - Aged 21 from Ossett, Yorkshire. KIA.
Flt. Sgt. (Nav.) Francis Stokeld - KIA.
Flt. Sgt. O. J. McNaughton (RCAF) - Survived and evaded capture.
Sgt. James Kearney - Aged 20 from County Antrim. KIA.
Flying Officer (Air gunner) - William Ramsay - Aged 23 from Edinburgh, married. KIA.
Sgt. (Air gunner) Arthur Bradley - Aged 21 from West Hartlepool. KIA.
*In 1993 family members of the crew erected a memorial to the men of ME832 at the site of the crash. It can be seen here.
Stanley Futcher has no known grave and is remembered on the Air Force Memorial, Runnymede, Surrey (panel 211) and on the Woking County Grammar School roll of honour located in Christ Church, Woking.
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Last updated 4 July 2010
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Woking News and Mail
Woking County School magazine
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