Maurice Michael Stephens, (20 October 1919 – 23 September 2004) was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

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 ...

of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Stephens scored 17 kills, three shared kills, one probable kills and five damaged.

Early life

Born in

Ranchi Ranchi (; ) is the capital city and also the largest district by population of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern ...

, India on 20 October 1919, the son of John William Stephens, a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer serving with the

Lincolnshire Regiment The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regim ...

, Stephens was educated at the Xaverian Colleges at

Clapham Clapham () is a district in south London, south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (including Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Ea ...

and

Mayfield, Sussex Mayfield and Five Ashes is a civil parish in the High Weald of East Sussex, England. The two villages making up the principal part of the parish lie on the A267 road between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne: Mayfield, the larger of the two ...

. After school he initially joined the

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, before going to the

Royal Air Force College Cranwell The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to become commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and is resp ...

in 1938. At Cranwell he excelled in boxing and rowing and was awarded his wings in 1940.

Second World War

Stephens' first posting was to

No. 3 Squadron RAF Number 3 Squadron, also known as No. 3 (Fighter) Squadron, of the Royal Air Force operates the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 from RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, since reforming on 1 April 2006. It was first formed on 13 May 1912 as one of the first sq ...

, with whom he fought during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

. He became the

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 ...

of B Flight during this battle, while still holding the rank of

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. On his return from France he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and

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, which were gazetted at the same time (and in fact on the same page of the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

''): After the fall of France, B Flight was posted to Scotland and reformed as No. 232 Squadron RAF, of which Stephens was Commanding Officer. No 232 Squadron formed part of No. 13 Group RAF during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

. He was promoted flying officer on 20 August 1940, in the middle of the battle. Stephens next served North Africa where he joined No. 274 Squadron and was sent to Turkey for eight months, during which he flew operational patrols along the Bulgarian border. He twice intercepted Italian S-84 reconnaissance aircraft intruding across the border, and shot two down in a Turkish Hurricane, while wearing civilian clothes. In November 1941 he returned to the Western Desert to command No. 80 Squadron. He was shot down and wounded in both feet in December 1941, receiving a

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...

in January 1942. The citation read: He then joined No. 229 Squadron flying Spitfires on Malta in October 1942. He was shot down on 12 October and picked up by an air-sea rescue motor launch. In November we became wing commander (flying) at Hal Far airfield. He returned to the UK in 1943 and served in various staff positions, before becoming Chief Flying Instructor at No. 3 Operational Training Unit in January 1944. Stephens' final score in the war was 15 (and 3 shared) destroyed, 2 unconfirmed destroyed, 1 probable and 5 damaged.

Post-war career and personal life

Stephens continued to serve in the RAF until 1960. After the Second World War he was the first RAF officer to join the newly formed

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

and had staff appointments with

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe The Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. SHAPE is situated in the villag ...

and in the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

, where he was involved in fighter operations. He joined the

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company soon afterward and based himself in Paris. He retired altogether in 1980 and lived in the south of France, only to return to Britain in 1992. In 1942 he married Violet May Paterson, always known as "Blue" because she was given a blue ribbon when she was born to identify her from her twin sister; the couple had a son and a daughter. Photographs of Stephens' medals and damage to his aircraft appeared in the ''Daily Telegraph'' in June 2012.

Citations

Bibliography

* Holmes, Tony. ''Hurricanes Aces 1939–1940''. London: Osprey, 1998 . * Price, Dr. Alfred. ''Spitfire Mark V Aces 1939–1945''. London: Osprey, 1997 .

External links

Telegraph ObituaryThe Times Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Maurice Michael 1919 births 2004 deaths British aviators British World War II flying aces Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Graduates of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force group captains Royal Air Force pilots of World War II The Few British expatriates in France People from Ranchi