More than 80 years after he was killed, the service and sacrifice of Flight Lieutenant Noel Stokes is still commemorated each year in a small village in Northern France.
The 25-year-old Wellingtonian was the pilot of a No. 75 Squadron Lancaster on a raid deep into the heart of Germany on the night of 28 July 1944. It was his 28th operation, and the target was Stuttgart, home to industrial giants Daimler Benz and Bosch.
As Lancaster NE148/H crossed the Lower Rhine in enemy territory, it was attacked by a German night fighter. Rear gunner Sergeant Norman Wilding was killed, and the port engine was shot up, so Stokes jettisoned the bomb load, turned around and set course for base hoping to nurse the damaged aircraft home.
Half-way across France, Stokes was losing the fight to maintain altitude and ordered the crew to bail out. The Lancaster was now on a collision course with the tiny village of Yèvres.
Watching the drama above unfold, the villagers of Yèvres always believed Noel Stokes stayed on at the controls to steer the aircraft away from their homes. He died in the crash, and the French community has commemorated the young Kiwi pilot’s courage and sacrifice ever since.
Each year the villagers held an annual commemoration to honour him, as well as to celebrate all allied forces who fought to free France, and to strengthen the bonds between New Zealand and France.
There is Rue du Lt Stokes, and his name on a stained-glass window in the cathedral. There is a joint War Graves Commission grave for Stokes and air gunner Norman Wilding in the local cemetery. The other crew members from the Lancaster managed to evade capture.
For the 80th commemoration of the crash in 2024, the people of Yèvres commissioned a new memorial which was unveiled on 6 October, 2024, by several children including Stokes’s great grand-niece, Isabella. Christchurch’s Francine Bills and Glyn Stokes attended.
To read more about this extraordinary young Kiwi, have a look at Glyn’s book No Glory Without Effort, the story of Noel Stokes.
Noel Alfred Deal Stokes was born in Christchurch and was a Post Office clerk in Wellington prior to joining the RNZAF. Air gunner Norman Vaughan Wilding was a Royal Air Force volunteer from Brockweir in Gloucestershire, and was 19 when he was killed.
Noel Stokes was one of four RNZAF casualties that night. Another three young No. 75 Squadron Kiwis lost their lives in the same raid when their Lancaster was brought down over France.
They were Pilot Officer Ian Edward Blance, 21, from New Plymouth; Flight Sergeant Frederick Walter Percival Climo, 22, from Timaru; and Flight Sergeant Frederick Francis Arthur Jenkins, 30, from New Plymouth.
