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Library Reference Number: 110

Aircrew Leadership

Jack Burgess, Scottish Saltire Branch, ACA.

Air Marshal John Stacey, 160 Squadron, RAF. In every walk of life, individuals may be found with the ability to create motivating factors, capable of producing maximum- effort from others. In other words the quality of 'Leadership.' Fortunately, many Air Force Squadrons were influenced by strong leaders who led from the front, such a person was Air Vice-Marshal John Stacey, CBE, DSO, DFC, JMN, who spent most of his life in the Royal Air Force.

We first met in mid 1944, when I joined 160 Squadron based in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and S/Ldr Stacey was my Flight Commander. I was aware at that time, that he had a great deal more flying experience than most of us. Born in 1920, he joined the RAF in July 1938, and at outbreak of WW2 he was attached to 240 Squadron flying the bi-plane Saro London Flying Boat based at Shetland. Experience of rough weather flying came in handy when in February 1944 flying Catalinas from Madagascar, and at the risk of court martial, he persisted in flying through warnings of a severe cyclone. His action was instrumental in sinking a German U-Boat mother ship.

My first experience of flying with John Stacey occurred on 13th September 1944, when I joined his crew as Flight Engineer. Our target being the German submarine U862. With code-buster ENIGMA making things rather uncomfortable for U-Boats in the South Atlantic, this one decided to look for pastures new, and continued on its way around the Cape into the Indian Ocean. Eventually making its way to Penang where it hoped to refuel and replenish supplies from the Japanese occupying Malaya, U862 had sunk five Allied ships during the past month.

Our task was to intercept and destroy U862, as intelligence informed us it was making its way down through the Malacca Straits, past Singapore, and heading south for Australia. One U-Boat commander had made the boast that it would be easier for a crow to attack a mole, than an aircraft to find a submarine; we reckoned later there was an element of truth in this statement, for we failed to find and destroy U862 on its way to Australia. This was a source of great regret, as we discovered later it had sunk more ships including two American Liberty ships 'Robert Walker' and 'Peter Sylvester' in New Zealand and Australian waters.

Meanwhile, intending to spend a few days searching for the elusive submarine, we landed (with great difficulty) on the small island of Gan in Addu Atoll, the most southern of the Maldives, a few miles south of the equator. Requiring a long, low approach to land on such a short runway with the ocean at both ends, one of the three Liberators had struck a navigation pole, ripping off the aircraft's bomb-doors.

Ordering the other two aircraft to return to Ceylon, Stacey insisted on staying behind with the damaged Liberator. He instructed the four members of ground-crew we had brought along and myself, to set to work and patch up the space left by the ripped off bomb-doors with the only material available on the island - sheets of corrugated metal. This we managed to complete in a few days, and S/Ldr Stacey announced his intention for everyone to pile in and return to Ceylon, as he was determined not to lose one of his valuable aircraft. There was only one snag left (apart from the plane being airworthy). Where do we find sufficient 100 octane fuel to enable us fly back to Ceylon - a four-hour flight?

Once again, the resourceful Stacey had sussed out the position of a fuel dump, consisting of 5-gallon cans buried in the sand. Digging those up, we poured them into an up-ended 40-gallon oil drum, before pumping the contents into the main tanks of the aircraft. Having convinced ourselves, that we were about as ready as we could ever be, we boarded the Liberator, and on 21S` September 1944 with a sigh of relief, we became airborne without losing any `patches.' In fact we had a 'rattling' good flight lasting 3 hours 50 minutes. All was not well however with Liberator FL969, as we discovered later from the Maintenance Unit at Ratmalana, Colombo, where we had landed with the damaged aircraft.

When the other crew had struck the post on their approach to the Island runway, the overall damage had been much greater than ripped-off bomb doors that our superficial inspection had revealed. Among other things, a main bulkhead had also been fractured and Liberator FL969 was declared a 'write-off.'

On a later occasion when I was now flying with another aircrew, John Stacey (now W/Cdr) was conducting an operational briefing on the morning of 21St January 1945. This was to be the first mine-laying operation off the west coast of Japanese-occupied Malaya, carried out by Liberators based in Ceylon. Possibly bearing in mind, that a Japanese Invasion Fleet had already attempted to inflict damage in Ceylon in April 1942, SEAC had decided to keep 160's base as secret as possible considering our long-range capability This policy of secrecy was kept to the letter by our Squadron Commander as the following incident shows. .

It all amounted to the fact that our three Libs were to attempt to cross the Indian Ocean, and be the fore-runners of similar operations to drop mines in the Malacca Straits to halt the flow of Japanese supplies ships that were supporting Japanese Forces in Burma. After going over every detail, and stressing the importance of approaching the target area at under 50 feet in order to get under the Japanese radar, Stacey still had a trump

card to play. He calmly announced that after we dropped our mines at Penang, Crawley and Waterfield crews had to maintain low level to avoid the Japanese radar, and get the heck out of it back to base. Meanwhile, he had intended to climb and set course for India. The purpose of this was to give the impression we were based in India - in the hope 160 could remain anonymous at our base in Ceylon. I shall never ever forget the amazed look on the faces of Stacey's crew as he outlined their unexpected heroic role. I believe they may have preferred to scarper home with us after the job was done!

In any case, we took off at 14.45 Hrs on 21St January 1945, and Squadron ORBs will confirm that our Liberator 'P' BZ828 with skipper Les Waterfield, dropped our mines in the exact spot intended. This was the start of a whole new mine-dropping era. Post war records show that ten Japanese ships were destroyed in this manner. Let's hope we played some small part in reducing Japanese supplies being used against our Allied Forces.

The chief danger point at that time, was flying past Sabang on the north tip of Sumatra, which was home to three squadrons of Japanese fighter planes. This did not deter Stacey, who had paid an earlier visit to Sabang in a Catalina. Despite intense anti-aircraft fire, he successfully dropped his four 250 Ib bombs before returning to Ceylon. For this action, he was awarded the DFC, the first of several awards, the DSO following as well as being mentioned in dispatches three times.

My first long-distance operation accompanied by Stacey's aircraft, was quickly followed by much longer flights, until W/Cdr Stacey eventually led eight Liberators on a 3,640 mile mission to lay mines in Singapore harbour. Even on subsequent operations to Japanese-held Singapore, I can still clearly recall harbour and shipping lights being distinguished one by one, as they apparently still didn't believe our Liberators could reach them over so great a distance. Little did they know this was only the beginning, for 160 Squadron went on to even longer flying operations, when we dropped Force 136 guerrillas deep into Japanese-held Malaya and Thailand.

At the end of the war, John Stacey completed a tour as assistant air attache in Washington, then in April 1960 Stacey was seconded to the embryonic Royal Malayan Air Force as the Chief of Staff. Two years later, he was invested with one of Malaya's highest orders, the Johan Mangko Negara (JMN). Returning to UK he was appointed AOC Air Cadets, on completing this tour he was appointed CBE. His final appointment was Air Officer Administration, Support Command. Air Vice-Marshal John Stacey, CBE, DSO, DFC, retired in 1975.

A classic example of a Leader who would not ask anyone to do something, that he wasn't prepared to do himself. Just the reverse, Stacey would probably take action first himself - before allowing others to follow.

Twenty years later in 1995, John Stacey and I spent some time reminiscing on our days with 160 Squadron in Ceylon. This was carried out courtesy of Dr. Arthur Banks in preparation for his book "Wings of the Dawning." During this discussion, we both agreed that the skill, expertise and commitment of our ground crews had played a major part in our survival. Bearing in mind that we had very low priority in materials and resources in the Far East, little or no air-sea-rescue over exceptionally long distances, and very little hope of survival if forced down as the Japanese had stopped taking prisoners, we were very fortunate to have made it back to UK in one piece.

This was to be my final discussion or contact with John Nichol Stacey, the former Merchant Navy apprentice who spent most of his life in the Royal Air Force, and rose to the rank of Air Vice-Marshal. A man with the gift of motivating others, then making the first move himself. During the final discussion, credit was given to others, no mention was made of his qualities of 'Leadership' - but leaders are born that way, aren't they?

Footnote: - The Squadron John Stacey commanded in the Far East during WW2 (No.160) was renamed 120 Squadron after the war; No 120 had been the RAF's highest scoring anti-submarine unit with 14 kills. Despite this record, the Squadron was disbanded on 4th June 1945 and not reformed again until October 1946, when No. 160 Squadron, returning from the Far East and based at RAF Leuchars, was re-numbered 120 Squadron.

It could be claimed that the same spirit shown by personnel of 160 during WW2 still exists today (2006). At present, 120 Squadron, flying `Nimrods' based at Kinloss, Scotland, are carrying out operational flying duties on attachment in Afghanistan and other troubled areas.

Additional Note by Webmaster - 5th September 2006

I received this article for inclusion on the web site this morning, 5th September 2006, and I'm fairly sure that when this article was being written, Jack had no idea of the tragedy that occurred a few days ago in Afghanistan concerning a Nimrod of 120 squadron. Reports stated that the crash which killed fouteeen gallant aircrew was due to mechanical failure. I feel sure members of the Aircrew Association will join me in expressing a feeling of sympathy to the relatives of those who died. Sadly, it seems the price paid for stabiity in the World, even sixty years after the last World War, remains very costly!

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