RAF night fighter ace Richard Playne Stevens. A tale of reckless bravery, and vengeance.

Eighty years ago this week RAF night fighter ace Richard Playne Stevens was killed while on a night fighter intruder sortie.  He is buried in the British Cemetery at Bergen Op Zoom in the Netherlands.  His wartime career was a remarkable one brought about, it seems, by tragedy.

I reproduce below the entry in Aces High (Neville Spearman, 1966) by Christopher Shores and Clive Williams.

“Stevens, from Ditchling, was a civil pilot before the war, flying 400 hours at night on the newspaper run between London and Paris.  He joined the RAF after the outbreak of war, aged 32, the maximum age for pilot training, and was posted as a pilot officer to 151 Squadron at the end of 1940 to fly Hurricanes at night on intruder missions.

His wife and children were killed on one of the early night blitzes on Manchester, and from then on he flew with complete disregard for his own life.

His method was to search the sky for the greatest concentration of anti-aircraft shell bursts, and fly there to find the enemy.  He pressed his attacks home so close that on one occasion an exploding bomber covered his wings with bits of debris and blood, which he refused to have removed.  Naturally, rumours about such a pilot were rife, and it was said by some that he screamed like a man demented whenever he contacted enemy bombers, but whether or not this was a true statement cannot be confirmed.

On the 15 January 1941 he claimed the squadron’s first night victories, destroying a Do 17 and a He 111.  He was only the third pilot to destroy two in one night, and he was awarded a DFC.  He then had ear trouble and was unable to fly for a while.

On 8 April he shot down two He 111s and two nights later got a Ju 88 and a He 111.  He then received a Bar to his DFC.

He destroyed another He 111 on 19 April, and on 7 May got two more.  He claimed another He 111 and a second probably destroyed on 10 May, and on 13 June destroyed one more.  He damaged one on the 22 June and on 3 July shot down a Ju 88.  He got one further victory, and then on 22 October got another Ju 88, his fourteenth and last confirmed claim.

At this time he was the RAF’s top scoring night fighter, leading all the radar-assisted pilots by a fair margin, his pre-war night-flying experience and his lack of any consideration for his own survival accounting for this.

In November he was posted as a flight commander to 253 Squadron, but it had been considered for some while that the way he was flying there could only be one end.  He received a DSO on 12 December, but three nights later failed to return from an intruder sortie.”

Flight Lieutenant Richard Playne Stevens was the son of Sidney Agar Stevens and Isabel Dora Stevens.  His late wife was Olive Mabel Stevens of Barwick, Somerset.