I had the privilege of attending his funeral service on the Saturday, and the pleasure of meeting some of his friendly and welcoming family.
There were some wonderful tributes and memories shared by family, friends and colleagues. Wood crew. In fact, their paths were so similar that I feel sure they must have known each other.
I never met Stan, but it seems that anyone who did, was much the richer for it. At the exact time of the publishing of this post, 70 years ago, Pilot John Wood and his Flight Engineer Dougie Williamson were easing the throttles forward on their Mk. The destruction caused and the debate that has continued over their target that night has been encapsulated into a single word, which in itself, has cast a long dark shadow over the activities of RAF Bomber Command and the boys that flew in it.
The boy had gone to bed, his head buzzing with his chemistry experiments, when at around 9. I went downstairs anyway but there was nothing special to indicate what was about to occur. He and his parents noted the drone of the bombers in the distance, but they thought they were flying on to bomb Chemnitz or Leipzig. His parents told him the enemy pilots were only taking photographs and would soon be gone. Then came the incendiary bombs to do the real damage — a well-worked-out English strategy.
By that time we were sitting in our cellar and I felt increasingly scared by the minute. How incredibly naive we were. Like many people, it had opened his eyes. The general name given to this plan was Operation Thunderclap, but it had been decided not to implement it until the military situation in Germany was critical.
