Wallace Stockport

Wallace Stockport served in the Royal Air Force as a wireless operator and air gunner, reaching the rank of Flight Sergeant. He was posted to No. 83 Squadron, which flew Handley Page Hampdens from RAF Scampton as part of No. 5 Group, Bomber Command, carrying out night attacks against German naval and industrial targets during the early years of the war. In July 1940 he took part in a strikingly low-level raid on warships in the harbour at Wilhelmshaven, sweeping in just above rooftop height alongside his pilot; throughout the attack Stockport fired his machine guns continuously at the enemy gun positions and searchlights, helping to suppress the defences and press home the strike. For that action and for his courage and skill on many previous operations in the most trying weather conditions, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, gazetted on 6 August 1940. The squadron later re-equipped with the Avro Manchester and then the Avro Lancaster, and Stockport continued to fly operationally into 1942. He was killed on 12 June 1942, by which time he held the rank of Flight Sergeant; he is buried at Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery in Poland, in joint grave 5. D. 3-4.