1216 Sgt. Stan Instone Royal Air Force 419 Squadron Stan Instone was a flight engineer with 419 Squadron, based at RAF Middleton St George, and was halfway through his 19th mission on board a Lancaster in February 1945. Approaching Dortmund, and 30 minutes from target, the bomber was hit by a Messerschmitt on the starboard wing. The pilot gave the instruction to bale out, but Stan saw that the rear-gunner was trapped. Ice had formed round his gun turret, so he couldn’t get out. Stan did his best to help but the rear-gunner had turned his turret round and flames from the burning plane melted the ice, allowing him to force it open. “He went out backwards but his boot got caught so he was being dragged behind the aircraft,” recalled Stan. “Luckily, he was able to wriggle free, leaving his boot stuck in the aircraft, and managed to parachute to safety.” Stan went back through the fuselage to check on the pilot and was about to bale out when the plane exploded. “I don’t remember much else, but I came to in mid-air,” he said. “I calculated later that I must have dropped around 10,000 feet while unconscious. I thought I’d better pull my ripcord, landed in a tree and saw out the war as a prisoner.” In 2013, Stan was invited to Germany to be presented with a piece of his plane after it was unearthed in a farmer’s field near Dortmund. “I can’t believe it’s so long since it all happened – it seems like yesterday,” said Stan. “But it was just the way it was – people lived or died. I got lucky.” - Northern Echo 2nd Jun 1918
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