Book Review:

Spitfire Pilot Air Commodore Geoffrey Stephenson

By John Shields

Air World 2024

ISBN : 9781036105402

336 page Hardback Illustrated

Geoffrey Stephenson’s RAF career demands a book. He sometimes receives attention because of his association with Douglas Bader. The pair were close friends, they were at Cranwell together and  both went to No 23 Squadron on graduating. Bader was best man at Stephenson’s wedding. However, as this book makes clear, Stephenson was a significant RAF figure in his own right. He does not need Bader’s reflected fame to claim his place in the history of the service.

Stephenson went on to command No 19 Squadron. He was shot down over Dunkirk, briefly evaded capture in France and Belgium but then became a PoW. Towards the end of his five years in captivity Stephenson was at Colditz Castle, where he was reunited with his erstwhile best man. After the war Stephenson continued to rise in the RAF through a variety of appointments and reached the rank of Air Commodore.

He died in an accident in the United States in 1954, flying a supersonic F-100 Super Sabre. He is buried in Montgomery, Alabama, alongside RAF personnel killed while training during the war.

Many years later Stephenson came to attention again when the remains of Spitfire Mk 1 N3200, in which he had crash landed on 26 May 1940, were recovered from a French beach and eventually restored. The aircraft can be found at IWM Duxford today.

This is a very interesting story well told by an author who himself had an RAF flying career of 18 years. I suggest that you try it.