Introduction
It was my interest in my late uncle Will’s
time in the RAF that led me to research his career as an RAF Wireless Operator
during World War Two. I knew very little
about him other than he flew in Lancasters and was killed in 1944, so I decided
to research his career and discover what I could about him, his fellow crew
members and about the Squadron they served in.
This led to eight years of research work on the story of my uncle,
Flight Sergeant William Thomas Stapleton, his crew and the history of 626
Squadron.
As part of my research I am also collecting
items and equipment relating to the role of a Lancaster Wireless Operator on an
operational Bomber Command Squadron, covering not only the operational side of
life but the off duty time of an airman as well. In this way I hope to portray a more personal side to the story
of the aircrews that served in Bomber Command during World War Two. This website is my tribute to my uncle, his
crew and the 55,500 aircrew members of Bomber Command who lost their lives
during World War Two, every one of them a volunteer.
Dave Stapleton
Lie in the dark and listen
It’s clear tonight so they’re flying high
Hundreds of them, thousands perhaps
Riding the icy, moonlit sky
Men, machinery, bombs and maps
Altimeters and guns and charts
Coffee, sandwiches, fleece-lined boots
Bones and muscles and minds and hearts
English saplings with English roots
Deep in the earth they’ve left below
Lie in the dark and let them go
Lie in the dark and listen.
Lie in the dark and listen
They’re going over in waves and waves
High above villages, hills and streams,
Country churches and little graves
And little citizens’ worried dreams
Very soon they’ll have reached the sea
And far below them will lie the bays
And cliffs and sands where they used to be
Taken for summer holidays
Lie in the dark and let them go
Theirs is a world we’ll never know
Lie in the dark and listen.
Lie in the dark and listen
City magnates and steel contractors
Factory workers and politicians
Soft hysterical little actors
Ballet dancers, reserved musicians
Safe in your warm civilian beds
Count your profits and count your sheep
Life is passing over your heads
Just turn over and try to sleep
Lie in the dark and let them go
There’s one debt you’ll forever owe,
Lie in the dark and listen.
1944