Captain Eric John Stephens (1895-1967) was an Australian
flying ace
A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...
who served in the Royal Air Force. He was credited with 13 confirmed aerial victories. He later became a
Qantas
Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...
pilot.
Early life
Eric John Stephens was born in
Bendigo
Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital.
As of 2022, Bendigo has a popula ...
, Victoria, Australia on 13 September 1895.
[The Aerodrome website, http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/stephens.php Retrieved 9 November 2017.] When Eric John Stephens joined the
Australian Imperial Force on 19 July 1915, he named his father, John Thomas Stephens, as next of kin. The younger Stephens was a college student and was in the militia when he joined.
He landed at
Marseilles
Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean S ...
, France in June 1916. He served on both the Northern Front and the Somme River, being commissioned a
Second Lieutenant in the process.
[
]
Flying service
Stephens' was commissioned in the RFC on 13 April 1917. He became a pilot on 30 June. He was retained as a flying instructor until his transfer to No. 41 Squadron RFC on 16 March 1918. Using a Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5
The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 is a British biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. It was developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory by a team consisting of Henry Folland, John Kenworthy and Major Frank Goodden. It was one of the ...
a, he shot down a Rumpler
Rumpler-Luftfahrzeugbau GmbH, Rumpler-Werke, usually known simply as Rumpler was a German aircraft and automobile manufacturer.
History
Founded in Berlin by Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler in 1909 as Rumpler Luftfahrzeugbau.Gunston 1993, p. ...
on 28 June for his first victory; he shared it with Frederick McCall
Frederick Robert Gordon McCall (4 December 1896 – 22 January 1949) was a Canadian air ace during World War I, with 35 confirmed and two unconfirmed victories. After a career in civil aviation, he returned to service in World War II.
Early l ...
. Stephens would accumulate 12 more wins after this, all solo, and most over enemy fighters, with the final one falling on 1 November 1918. By war's end, he was a Flight Commander
A flight commander is the leader of a constituent portion of an aerial squadron in aerial operations, often into combat. That constituent portion is known as a flight, and usually contains six or fewer aircraft, with three or four being a common ...
, had destroyed five enemy airplanes, and driven down eight more out of control.
Aerial victory list
Post World War I
Stephens earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was gazetted to him on 3 June 1919. He was transferred to the RAF's unemployed list on 16 August 1919.
Endnotes
References
* ''Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920''. Christopher F. Shores, Norman L. R. Franks, Russell Guest. Grub Street, 1990. , .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Eric John
1895 births
1967 deaths
Australian World War I flying aces