GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
He arrived in Malta on 29 September 1942 and first flew operationally on Spitfires on 8 October. His score to date during the present intense aerial fighting over Malta is five and a half destroyed, one probably and four damaged, two of these so severely that it is unlikely they returned to base. Squadron Leader Stephens arrived in Malta with a great reputation which he has upheld by his exemplary devotion to duty. On each occasion he has flown since the present battle began he has engaged in combat. He is an exceptional pilot and leader who has no hesitation in attacking the enemy whatever the odds may be. His courage and daring are an inspiration to his squadron and the other pilots in the Island.’
Maurice Michael “Mike” Stephens was born in Ranchi, India, in October 1919, the youngest son of an army officer, and was educated at the Xaverian Brothers colleges at Clapham and Mayfield, Sussex. Having then been employed by the Port of London Authority, he followed his two elder brothers, Richard and Jack, into the Royal Air Force on being accepted by R.A.F. Cranwell in 1938.
The Fall of France and the Battle of Britain
Graduating in December 1939, he was posted to No. 3 Squadron, a Hurricane unit, in which capacity he was sent out to France when Hitler launched his attack on the Low Countries in May 1940 - ‘Shortly after midday we were on our way to France. There were not enough maps for everyone; I, as the most junior member of the Squadron, was not one of the favoured few. We had therefore to content ourselves with following our leaders’.
In a period of frantic fighting over the next week or so, in which his squadron was sometimes scrambled several times a day, Stephens claimed a remarkable tally of nine confirmed victories - the whole without map, radar or fighter control.
The first of his victims, a Ju. 87 and a Do. 17, fell to his guns on the 12th, in a combat over Diest-Louvain:
‘Suddenly we spotted about 60 tiny black dots in the sky, flying west like a storm of midges. The next moment we were among them - Stukas with an escort of about 20 Me. 109s. I got one Ju. 87 lined up in my gunsight and opened fire from about 50 yards. After a short burst he blew up in an orange ball of flame, followed by a terrifying clatter as my Hurricane flew through the debris. Just then, from out of the cloud a few hundred yards away, emerged a Dornier 17. I gave him a short burst from short range, hitting his starboard engine which started smoking. I had the satisfaction of seeing the pilot belly-land the aircraft in a ploughed field.’
Stephens added another Ju. 87 to his score later in the day and, in quick succession during combats over Sedan on the 14th, a Ju. 87, an Me. 109 and an Henschel 126, but he was compelled to make a force-landing at Maubeuge after his Hurricane was damaged by return fire on the latter occasion.
He was then credited with confirmed Do. 17s on the 18th and 20th, in addition to damaging at least two other aircraft on the latter date, one of them another Henschel 126 - the Observer / Air Gunner, Leutnant von Reden was killed and his pilot, Leutnant Boehm, wounded, though he managed to crash-land his aircraft back to German territory.
Returning from his final sortie in France with six inches missing off one of his propeller blades - enough to shake the engine to pieces if he attempted to take-off again - he was told the Squadron had just 30 minutes to evacuate its airfield; so, too, by the Engineering Officer, that his Hurricane would have to be destroyed. But rather than retreat to the coast by motor transport, Stephens got his astounded ground crew to take six inches off the other blade before taking-off - just - and making a shaky flight back to an airfield in England.
He was awarded the D.F.C. and Bar, both awards being announced in the London Gazette on the same day.
In July, his Flight was posted north to the Shetlands, where it was used to form the nucleus for No. 232 Squadron, of which he became the first C.O., aged just 20 years and, by way of confirming he was keeping his eye in, he shared in the Squadron’s first victory over Scapa Flow on 23 August.
Turkey and North Africa
Having then volunteered to go overseas, he was embarked in the carrier Furious for Greece, but was diverted to North Africa where he briefly joined No. 274 Squadron before undertaking a sensitive mission to neutral Turkey, where he was charged with training up Turkish pilots, it being the intention of the British Government to enlist such support in view of German advances in Greece. He remained for eight months, and, piloting a Turkish Hurricane in civilian clothing, shot down a pair of Italian S-84 reconnaissance bombers which strayed over the border. Even though Stephens inspected the wreckage in each case, and sent home samples of ammunition in the diplomatic bag, he was never officially credited with the victories.
In November 1941, he returned to the Western Desert, where he took command of No. 80 Squadron, and was quickly back in action strafing enemy troops and armour in the Tobruk area, often in the face of heavy flak. Thus a sortie on 3 December, parallel to the Trich- Capuzzo track, when at the commencement of his dive, a flak shell burst in his starboard tank, ‘making quite a mess of it’ (see photograph).
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