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F/L Stanley Thomas Boullier RAFVR and crew - 576 Sqn – RAF Fiskerton – 1944/45.
Abandoned outbound - 2/3rd February 1945 - Lancaster I – PD312 - Op Wiesbaden.
Stanley Thomas Boullier ( pictured above ) first learned to fly with the Queen's University Air Squadron in Belfast, where he was a student at the beginning of the war. He went to the US where he got his RAF and USAF wings and went on to train other pilots as part of the 'Arnold Scheme'. When he returned to the UK he was posted to an OTU flying Wellingtons and had to bale out after a 'Nickeling' operation. See Note 1 at the foot of this page
He and his crew were posted to 576 Squadron probably November 1944. Boullier flew his first operation as co- pilot in the crew of F/L H Leyton-Brown on the 12/13th December 1944 to Essen. He then captained his won crew on their first operation to Ulm 5 nights later.
They completed 7 operations with the 576 Squadron being lost on their 8th.
Tour details below :-
17/12/1944 – Ulm – NG273 – F/L ST Boullier
22/12/1944 – Koblenz – NG273 – F/L ST Boullier - Bad weather at base. Landed at Manston.
28/12/1944 – Bonn – NF976 – F/L ST Boullier
31/12/1944 – Osterfeld – PD271 – F/L ST Boullier
05/01/1945 – Royen – PB753 – F/L ST Boullier
07/01/1945 – Munich – PD271 - F/L ST Boullier
01/02/1945 – Ludswigshafen – PD312 – F/L ST Boullier
02/02/1945 – Wiesbaden – PD312 – F/L ST Boullier – Abandoned due to serious engine fire over Allied held France. Crew all baled out with no reports of injuries
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Crew as follows :-
F/L Stanley Thomas Boullier - Safe,
Sgt D Barclay – Safe,
F/O PJ Smith – Safe,
Sgt J McVey – Safe,
Sgt E Ashley – Safe,
Sgt RE Laverty – Safe,
Sgt FV Stanton – Safe.
Boullier does not seem to have returned to 576 Squadron and neither do any of his crew apart from Sgt D Barclay who is shown in the ORB as flying 2 ops with F/O E J Pollard RAAF and crew in April 45
He was grounded, to his great dismay, after that second jump and that and the harrowing experience of those raids affected him for the rest of his life. He went on the work for John Laing Construction as head of Industrial Relations. He was most proud of his work on the construction of the new Coventry Cathedral, most appropriate after mutual British and German destruction of so many beautiful buildings.
On one business visit to Germany he was in discussion with a German colleague who asked him, "Have you ever been to Germany before?" - to which he replied "Sort of ". He then asked his colleague whether he had been to Britain to which he also replied "sort of". Two aviators caught up in the bombing of each others country now finding themselves working together on reconstruction.
He died at 75 in 1995 leaving his wife Lilian who went on to live until she was 95. They had three children, Ken, Kate and Jane. They had 9 grandchildren and so far 14 great-grandchildren !
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2 February 45 – Wiesbaden – Germany – Night. 13 aircraft detailed. Weather for take off and over England was clear to Reading where 7/10ths cloud with tops to 5000 ft built up. This cleared to 3/10ths over the Channel and dispersed to 0400E where a front was met with 10/10ths cloud with tops 18000 ft. This persisted with to the target and back to 0600E. From there to the English coast 7/10ths cloud with tops to 6000 ft was experienced. Over England and at base conditions were good.
For this attack emergency marking was used. Ground markers could not be seen through the cloud and most crews bombed on Gee and H2S. No results could be observed but bombing appears to have been scattered.
Very light flak in loose barrage form was employed as defence. No searchlights or fighters were reported.
On this operations D2 F/O Sowerbutts and crew failed to return. R2 F/L Boullier was at first reported missing but 4 members of the crew are now safe. Sgts McVey ( Nav ) Laverty ( MUG ) and Stanton ( RG ) still missing. Owing to late take off F/O Dalziel in C2 was instructed to abort at 5010N 0400E through failure to catch the main force. Their cookie was jettisoned before landing.
No training was carried out.
507 aircraft attacked from 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups. 3 Lancasters crashed in France. This was the only large attack by Bomber Command on this city. There was complete cloud cover and most of the bombing hit the centre of the city. The railway station was damaged but industry situated along the river Rhine was not hit.
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Lancaster PD312
This machine completed 36 operations before being lost on its 37th. It first flew with 576 Squadron on the 24th September 1944 to Calais with F/O W H Hepburn and crew. This aircraft was flown mostly by F/O R M Crowther and crew who flew it 12 times.
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Note 1
30/31st May 1944 - 30 OTU - Wellington III - BJ597 - Op Nickeling.
T/O 2315 Nixon. Set course for France. While flying some 10 miles west of Cherbourg at 15,000 ft the starboard engine caught fire. Distress signals were transmitted but none were acknowledged. Eventually the Wellington crossed the south coast at 8,000 feet continuing to seek assistance. The weather conditions were poor and at 0145 now down to 4,000 ft and with a thick blanket of cloud beneath the crew baled out. The aircraft crashed at Bulkington 4 miles south west of Devises in Wiltshire. No injuries to the crew were reported.
BJ597 had been involved in another incident when on the 21st January 1944 when it landed wheels up at Warmwell airfield Dorset whilst engaged on a Bullseye exercise. Pilot Sgt G L Rowe and crew.
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Item compiled and written by David Fell. Photos and background information courtesy of the Boullier family.
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