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Logbooks
Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession?
If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you.
View Logbook entries
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 22nd April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263973 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
- Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please read our Family History FAQ's
- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page.
Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about No. 253 (Hyderabad) Squadron Royal Air Force? There are:2018 items tagged No. 253 (Hyderabad) Squadron Royal Air Force available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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F/Lt. Richard Playne "Cats Eye" Stevens DSO, DFC and bar No. 253 Squadron (d.15th Dec 1941) In addition to previous notes about Richard Playne Stevens on this website, an excellent and thoroughly researched book has now been released detailing his life, service and death in action. "Lone Wolf" (published by Grub Street in 2019) has been co-authored by the respected military researcher and historian Andy Saunders with Terry Thompson (sadly departed).
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Richard Playne Stevens 253 Squadron (d.15th Dec 1941) Since reading, 'Johnnie' Johnson's book "Wing Leader", I have been fascinated by the story surrounding Flt. Lt. Richard Playne Stevens, 253 Squadron, RAF pilot. JJ speaks highly of him in his book and the great man himself, Dougie Bader, has referred to him, yet little is known of the man. I have found a few tidbits which reveal the death of his baby daughter in a house fire and that Stevens, for obvious reasons, took it very badly. Following this tragedy, it is said that he would scream like a man possessed when engaging the enemy during his time as a night fighter pilot and that he scored a very high tally against enemy aircraft without using any of the emerging technology at that time. One tale reveals that he got so close to an exploding Heinkel He 111 he was attacking, that ground crew found human remains and blood on the fuselage of his Hurricane after the sortie and he made them leave it on his aircraft. Whilst posted to 253 Squadron, Stevens set out to attack an airfield in Holland, Hulten near Grize- Rijen, on the 15th of December 1941, from Hibaldstow. He crashed near the Dutch airfield at 21:30 hrs that night and his remains were interred in the local cemetery at Bergen op Zoom and re-interred after the war at the CWWG site at Zuilen. If you know any more about this individual or the aircraft he flew I would appreciate it if you could forward information on to me. It is a tragic but fascinating story.
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