Ross Milton Stanford

Ross Milton Stanford was born in Fulham, a suburb of Adelaide, on 25 September 1917. He was the eldest of three children to Frank Stanford and Edith Excell. His father, a market gardener, was from several generations of market gardeners in the western suburbs of Adelaide. Ross’s great grandfather, Thomas Stanford, arrived in Adelaide in 1838 on the Rajasthan only two years after Adelaide was founded. He initially went to Meadows in the Adelaide Hills but moved down to the Adelaide Plains between the city and the coast to work market gardens in 1858. He then leased and eventually purchased a 26 acre market garden on the eastern side of Tapleys Hill Road north of the River Torrens in the mid 1870. For almost 100 years, members of the Stanford family operated market gardens in areas around the modern day suburbs of Brooklyn Park, Lockleys, Fulham Gardens and Kidman Park. They grew various fruits and vegetables.

Growing up on his family’s 19 acre market garden on Tapley’s Hill Road, Fulham Gardens, Ross attended Lockleys Primary School but he was destined not to initially follow his family into market gardening as he showed particular talent for cricket. Playing for Lockley’s Primary School he scored what was a schoolboy world record of 416 not out aged only 14 in December 1931. At the time, school matches were played over two Friday afternoons. By then end of the first afternoon, Stanford had scored 200 not out and Lockleys intended to continue batting on the second afternoon to see how far Stanford could go. After several further hours of play, the match was called off with Stanford still at the crease on 416 not out with the team score nearing 600 runs. The 416 runs remained a schoolboy record till the 2010/2011 season. He completed the school cricket season amassing 1,131 at an average of 161 including four centuries and was seen as a schoolboy cricket prodigy.

These early achievements led to his receiving a scholarship to Prince Alfred College where he continued to excel in the school cricket team. In his final year of school, his batting average was over 76 – the highest of not just Prince Alfred College but also across the Adelaide Turf Association. His form continued in his first season out of school playing for West Torrens Cricket Club in the 1935/36 season. With several scores including a 195 in B Grade before Christmas, he was promoted to A Grade and scored a century.

Attracting the attention of South Australia’s State cricket selectors, he was selected in February 1936 at the tender age of only 18 to play in a first class match against Tasmania which at the time was not playing in the Sheffield Shield. Captained by Don Bradman, the South Australian team largely comprised young and upcoming players giving them exposure to first class cricket. South Australia batted first and Ross Stanford came in at fifth drop with the score already an impressive 5 for 550 with Bradman having scored another century not out. Bradman pushed the ball around for several runs to ease Stanford into the game. Sadly, however, nerves got the better of Ross Stanford when he himself pushed the ball into the covers and took off for an impossible runand duly got run out for a duck. Bradman went on to score 369 – a record first class score at the time. Staford did not play any further games for South Australia pre- war but continued to excel at grade level and won the Talbot Smith Award for best fielder in A Grade cricket in 1937-38.

Meanwhile, Stanford joined the State Bank of South Australia and in 1938 was transferred to Waikerie and then Tailem Bend where he continued his cricket and played football for Waikerie. While in Tailem Bend, a recruitment train came through the town and Ross Stanford enrolled for service with the RAAF in January 1941 hoping to fly. However, a RAAF doctor assessed him as unsuitable for flying as Ross disclosed that he had once been hit on the back of the head by a cricket ball.

Stanford was then posted to No. 27 Operational Training Unit from mid-May to mid-July 1943. Located at RAF Litchfield in southeastern Staffordshire, 27OTU was formed in April 1941 to train aircrew for strategic bombing. The unit primarily trained Australian and other Commonwealth aircrew who were then posted to operational squadrons mostly in Lincolnshire. A key aspect of the OTUs was the initial forming of a crew (eg pilot, navgiator, wireless operator, air gunners) RAAF DH82 Tiger Moth trainer aircraft at RAAF Parafield. (SAAM) An RAF Airspeed Oxford Trainer of No 20 Advanced Flying Unit. (IWM) who would learn to operate together on a heavy bomber and then proceed as a team to their operational squadrons. Accordingly, at 27OTU, Stanford formed his initial crew comprising himself as pilot, Tom Butler (Navigator), Alan Jordan (Wireless Operator), George Clarke (Bomb Aimer) and Gordon Venables (rear gunner). The crew converted on to the Vickers Wellington twin-engined heavy bomber, obtaining 76 hours on the aircraft.

Stanford was then posted to No 1660 Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire where the crew converted onto the famous four-engine Avro Lancaster, the preferred strategic bomber of RAF Bomber Command, from mid-July to late August 1943. The crew were augmented with additional airmen Edward Judson (a RAF Flight Engineer) and Les Griffiths (mid-upper air gunner). It was at this stage that the rear gunner, Gordon Venables was grounded due to eye troubles and replaced by Arthur Rushton. At 27OTU, Stanford completed 38 hours flying time on the Lancaster. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in early August 1943.

Finally, after enlisting in the RAAF more than 30 months previously, Ross Stanford was finally posted to his first operational unit, No. 467 Squadron, a RAAF Bomber Command unit based at RAF Bottesford, Nottinghamshire, in late August 1943. Formed in November 1942 at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, 467 SQN as an Article XV squadron under the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS), equipped with Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. Although a RAAF Squadron, it comprised many Commonwealth aircrew throughout the war and when first formed, comprised over 90% RAF aircrew. On 24 November, the new squadron relocated to RAF Bottesford, Leicestershire, before again relocating a year later to its permanent base at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

It was one of three dedicated RAAF Lancaster squadrons in World War 2 alongside 460SQ and 463SQN. The squadron served with distinction throughout the war participating in Bomber Command’s offensive against Germany. It saw action in the Battle of the Ruhr, the Battle of Berlin, the Normandy landings, and strikes against V1 and V2 targets. Flying its last bombing mission in April 1945, 467 SQN was then used for the transportation of liberated Allied POWs to the UK. It was earmarked to form part of the new Tiger Force to operate against Japan and the squadron actually commenced conversion training onto B-24 Liberators for that purpose until the war in the Pacific ended and the Squadron was disbanded on 30 September 1945.

Several 467 SQN Lancaster aircraft survived the war with the most notable, S for Sugar, flying 137 missions, the second highest of any Commonwealth bomber, and now preserved and proudly on display at the Royal Air Force Museum, RAF Hendon. 467 Squadron flew a total of 3,833 sorties during the war but suffered heavily losing 118 aircraft and a total of 760 aircrew of whom 284 were Australian. Arriving at 467SQN on 29th of August 1943, Stanford and his crew conducted unit consolidation training before conducting their first operational mission on the evening of 5th September, a large mass formation of 605 aircraft striking the twin southern towns of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. The mass formation included twelve 467SQN Lancasters including Stanford flying ‘H for Harry’ loaded with a 4,000lb ‘cookie’ bomb and a mix of 4lb and 30lb incendiary bombs. The mission proved successful, causing massive fires across the cities but with 34 aircraft failing to return.

For the next several weeks, Stanford and his crew conducted further unit training missions but flew back-to-back operational missions on the 27th and 28th September targeting Hanover and Bochum in the Ruhr Valley. Two further back- to-back operational missions were conducted on 1st and 2nd October striking Hagen and Munich in the Ruhr. This was followed with a brief break with three missions in four days between 18th and 22nd October again targeting Hannover, Leipzig in the east and Kassel. The strike on Kassel was particularly devastating, causing a firestorm that destroyed 4,300 apartment buildings and leaving up to 120,000 people homeless, 153 industrial buildings destroyed and over six thousand civilian deaths.

During November he completed six operational missions including four targeting Berlin between 18th and 26th November. On the 3rd November, Standford was flying one of 18 467SQN Lancasters in an overall force of 589 Lancaster and Halifax bombers targeting Dusseldorf. The raid encountered significant night fighter activity with 467SQN’s SQNLDR Rollo Kingsford-Smith fighting off four-night fighter attacks. While making their run into the target, Stanford suddenly saw another Lancaster just in front of him appear in the dark. He quickly pulled on his stick climb the heavy Lancaster laden with its full bomb load to quickly climb above, narrowly avoiding a devastating mid-air collision at altitude.

The significant focus on Berlin continued during December with Stanford conducting another two of his three operational missions for the month over the risky and dangerous German capital. But December also highlighted to Stanford how the routine unit training missions could still pose risk. On the 27th December, he took off on a routine training sortie when suddenly the aircraft suffered a large bird strike with birds penetrating the cockpit and striking Stanford in the head. Stanford recovered the aircraft back to the airfield immediately.

In January, he completed another four operational missions including two more over Berlin.

By February, the airmanship of Stanford and his crew was firmly appreciated by senior officers. He was promoted to Flying Officer on 9th February 1944 and on 15 February, the crew was posted to No 617 Squadron (RAF), the Dambuster Squadron, after being selected for the squadron. On 23rd May 1944, it was Gazetted that FLGOFF Ross Stanford was to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service at 467SQN. The Citation read "Flying Officer Stanford has completed many successful operations, against the enemy in which he displayed skill, fortitude and devotion to duty."

Overall, during his time with 467SQN, Stanford flew 23 operational missions including nine over Berlin, amassing 273 flying hours mostly over Germany. While the crew remained together for the entire tour at 467SQN, they flew their missions on a number of aircraft including ‘Apple’, ‘Beer’, ‘Freddie’, and ‘Harry’ but flew the most in ‘Julie’.

Stanford arrived at 617SQN at RAF Woodhall Spa on 15^th February 1944. After the unit’s success in the famous and audacious Dambusters Raid on 16^th/17^th May 1943, 617 SQN became a specialist precision bombing squadron. It experimented with new bomb sights, target marking techniques and colossal new 'earthquake' bombs developed by Barnes Wallis, the inventor of the 'bouncing bomb' used in the Dambusters Raid. An unsuccessful attempt to bomb the Dortmund-Ems Canal from low level in September 1943 resulted in the loss of five aircraft and the death of the Squadron's new commanding officer. As a result, the unit entered a period of reduced operational activity.

The noted senior RAF bomber pilot WGCDR Leonard Cheshire was posted in to restore some strong leadership to the famous squadron, now facing some difficulty. He implemented a new pathfinder technique that was trialed on a raid only a week before Stanford arrived. On the night of 8^th/9^th February 1944, 617SQN Lancasters approached Limoges at 16,000 feet. Below, a Lancaster at 5,000 feet dropped shielded flares over the target. Cheshire flew in at 2,000 feet and could see as light as day. He identified the rooftop of the Gnome-Rhone factory and dropped a marker flare on the roof top.

Approaching at 16,000 feet, the remaining 617 SQN Lancasters ingressed to the target, dropping their bombs on the marker. The factory was devastated. It was Cheshire's first big success with 617SQN and set the basis for the units’ future operations that Stanford was going to conduct during 1944.

During the remainder of February and early March, Stanford and his crew conducted workup training with their new unit. They conducted their first operational 617 SQN mission on 10th March. The mission was a low-level strike designed and planned by Cheshire, targeting a needle roller bearing factory at Saint-Etienne in eastern central France at only 2,000 feet. It was Stanford’s first operational mission at low level but due to low cloud cover, the 617SQN strike was overall not very successful. In late March, he flew three missions targeting critical industry around Lyon in eastern France.

On 5 April, he flew in a 145-strong Lancaster raid targeting German aircraft factories on the outskirts of Toulouse in southern France. The mission involved WGCDR Cheshire marking the target at low level using a Mosquito becoming a precedent for future pathfinder missions. The mission was a success resulting in significant destruction. However, the long-range flight was challenging and risky for a fully loaded Lancaster, an aspect that was realised by Stanford as he was crossing the English Channel on his return to England with his fuel tanks almost empty. He put in a mayday call and was directed to a small secondary airfield on Thorney Island in the English Channel in West Sussex where the runway lighting suddenly appeared right in front of him. In his later years, he noted it was one of his closest calls.

Five days later he participated in a strike on the St Cyr military signals equipment depot in western France. The deadly raid was particularly successful, destroying all the buildings of the depot. Once again, WGCDR Cheshire marked the target buildings flying a Mosquito at low level. On 18th and 20th April, Stanford participated in strikes on rail marshaling yards at Juvisy south of Paris and La Chapelle in northeast France. Both strikes were completely successful, resulting in the destruction of the rail junctions. These missions were the part of the RAF Bomber Command’s preparations for the forthcoming D-Day landings by attempting to significantly degrade key lines of communications.

The mission on the 20^th April was the crew’s 30^th overall mission in Bomber Command, effectively meaning they had completed their Bomber Command operational tour. However, having just been posted to 617SQN, they had effectively agreed to stay on for a second operational tour highlighted by the conduct of two further missions on 22nd April and 24th April targeting Brunswick and Munich.

During May, 617SQN flew only four operational missions with Stanford flying none, providing the unit with some degree of respite while conducting some workup training for the forthcoming high operational tempo they were going to experience in June in support of the D-Day landings. In the early hours of 6th June, D-Day, Stanford flew one of 16 617SQN Lancasters on a mission in support of the amphibious force approaching Normandy. It was a sensitive and unique mission called OP TAXABLE, designed to confuse the Germans into believing the allied landings were occurring in areas other than the actual Normandy area.

The mission involved high precision flying where the aircraft staged at 2- mile (3.2 km) intervals parallel to the French coast and then spend two and a half minutes flying toward the coast, dropping window or chaff at fifteen-second intervals. The aircraft then turned and headed away from the coast for two minutes and ten seconds and turn to commence another approach thereby flying repeated rectangular profiles over several hours. At the same time, small boats were conducting similar approaches across the English Channel towing radar reflecting ballons. The intent was to create a wide cloud of chaff edging towards the coast and appearing like an actual amphibious force. The aircraft were modified by cutting a hole in the nose to allow the large quantities of chaff to be dropped and they were crewed with additional airmen to assist in its dropping.

Conducted on the approach to the French coastline off Cap d'Antifer about 80 km northeast from the actual D-Day landings at Normandy, Operation Taxable was intended to deceive the German forces believing the invasion would land east of Le Havre. Meanwhile, a similar operation involving No 218 Squadron (RAF) was conducted further northeast intended to simulate an allied landing near Calais.

With allied forces successfully lodging on the continent on 6th June, 617 SQN was quickly tasked into critical and precision interdiction missions to prevent or delay German reinforcements from reaching the Normandy area. On 8th June, Stanford flew in one of 25 Lancasters in the first 617SQN mission to use the new and large 2,000lb Tallboy earthquake bomb targeting the Saumur railway tunnel.

The mission was the first of many for 617SQN and Stanford involving the Tallboy bomb. Developed by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis, the 5-ton Tallboy was designed not to be dropped directly on a target but nearby, penetrate the ground and cause shock waves in the ground that would impact the foundations of the target. It was specifically designed for difficult, underground or hardened targets that conventional bombing techniques could not destroy. To penetrate the earth or hardened targets without breaking apart, the casing of the Tallboy had to be significantly stronger than traditional bombs which were designed to be light to maximise blast and be light enough to increase bomb loads. Likewise, the Tallboy was specifically designed by Wallis to be aerodynamically clean to allow it to reach a higher velocity to increase penetration. Its huge size required a modified Avro Lancaster bomber to carry it.

The mission was intended to stop a German Panzer Division that was expected to use the tunnel and bridge to cross the Loire River and reinforce German forces in the Normandy area. Along with the other Lancasters, Stanford dropped his Tallboy bomb from 18,000ft with great accuracy striking the approaches to the bridge, penetrating and blocking the railway tunnel, critically preventing the German reinforcements, especially 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, from moving towards Normandy in a timely manner.

On 14^th June, Stanford and his crew were again in the air with 21 other 617SQN Lancasters targeting the E-Boat pens and harbour at Le Havre. The daylight raid was designed to stop the German E-Boats, fast heavily armed motorboats, that were departing at night and attacking allied shipping supporting the Normandy landings. Despite encountering strong flak, the 617SQN Lancasters scored a direct hit on the hardened E-Boat pens penetrating the roof and doing serious damage inside. All but one of the E-boats were damaged beyond use. Further, the strikes on the harbour caused massive explosions that were so strong that ten vessels were blown out of the water and onto the wharfs. The raid was a success, with only one bomber lost and Le Havre virtually eliminated as an E-boat base for the remainder of the war.

On 15 June, Stanford and his crew joined twenty-one other 617 SQN Lancasters in a similar attack on the E-Boat pens at Boulogne further along the northern French coastline near Belgium. The massive strike again cause massive damage and while not completely destroying the E-Boats, the strike critically damage much infrastructure and forced the relocation of the E-Boats to Ijmuiden on the Dutch coastline much further away from the Normandy landing area.

617SQN was then tasked to support Operation CROSSBOW, the allied operation aimed at countering German rocket capabilities including V-1 flying bomb ("buzz bomb" or "doodlebug") and V-2 rocket weapons. The 617SQN Tallboys were specifically tasked to destroy rocket sites. CROSSBOW quickly took on paramount importance following Germany’s first launch of V-1s against London on 13th June 1944 only a week after, and prompted by, the Normandy landings. Indeed, the sudden assault prompted General Eisenhower to direct Crossbow targets were first priority over everything except the urgent requirements of the Normandy landings. Stanford flew four CROSSBOW missions on the between 20 and 25 June targeting V-2 bunkers at Watten and Wizernes and a V-1 bunker at Siracourt along the northern French coast near the Belgium border. The missions were largely successfully resulting in the Germans being unable to use the bunkers.

The CROSSBOW attacks continued in July. On 6^th July, Stanford and his crew flew in a 17 617SQN commitment to strike a large underground V-3 Cannon facility under construction near Mimoyecques in Northern France near Belgium. The complex comprised a network of tunnels dug under a hill linked to five inclined shafts in which 25 V-3 guns were to be installed. Aimed at London, the long-range guns would have been able to fire ten large shells a minute, or 600 rounds an hour, onto the city. Representing a new and devastating terror weapon. The Allies knew nothing about the V-3 but identified the site as a possible launching base for V-2 ballistic missiles, based on reconnaissance photographs and fragmentary intelligence from French sources.

The 617SQN strike on 6th July seriously damaged the underground complex with one Tallboy direct hit and four near misses, causing tunnels and shafts to collapse, entombing hundreds of workers underground and damaging to the gun barrels. For Stanford, the mission was the closest experience he had to being shot down. The aircraft, ED-763/B, was struck by flak several times and lost a port and starboard engine and its hydraulics. Stanford nursed the aircraft back to RAF Bradwell Bay in eastern Essex in Southeast England for an emergency landing.

Stamford flew five more Tallboy missions targeting CROSSBOW targets in July returning to Wizernes, Watten and Siracourt. On 1st August, they struck a V-1 storage site in a railway tunnel at Rilly-la-Montage in central eastern France. The Tallboy bombs caved in both ends of the tunnel, making the strike a major success. As a result of these and other similar raids, the Germans were forced to abandon the massive V-1 bases they had constructed and use smaller more mobile launching sites. It was Chesire’s final mission with 617SQN as he was posted out of the squadron having completed four operational tours in Bomber Command. Destined for greater things, he would go onto create Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force. Stanford established a close relationship with Cheshire particularly after the war.

The strike on 1st August was Stanford’s and his crew’s final mission with 617 SQN. Having completed 24 dangerous missions with the precision strike squadron on top of their 23 dangerous missions with 467SQN over just eleven months, the crew asked to be rested. They were not actually posted out of 617SQN until early March 1945. After several months’ rest, Stanford was attached to the Air Ministry from October 1944 to March 1945 where he spoke to employees who were making aircraft and aircraft components on the war and the operational experience. The morale boosting program was aimed at sustaining defence industry production as it was believed that although victory was looking likely in Europe, the war in the Pacific would continue and RAF Bomber Command was preparing a strategic bomber force called Tiger Force for the Pacific theatre once Germany was defeated.