Booker, Stanley A

Name: Stanley Albert BOOKER

Born 25 April 1922

Hometown: Gillingham, Kent UK

Age at arrival in Buchenwald: 22

Died [alive as August 2021]

Service: Royal Air Force

Service ID: 51872

Service Rank: Flight Officer

Duties: Navigator

Air Group: 10 Squadron

Airbase: Melbourne, Yorkshire UK

Aircraft: Halifax bomber MZ630

Date shot down: 2 June 1944

Fate of crew: 2 KIA, 1 captured immediately, 4 evaded; three of those captured (Booker, OSSELTON, and GOULD).

Evasion summary: Hiding with OSSELTON, HOFFMAN, and HASTIN in Picourt network.

Date captured: 1 July 1944

Capture summary: With HOFFMAN, OSSELTON, and HASTIN driven by Desoubrie and Orsini to Hotel Picadilly, then arrested in the parked car. Sustained broken nose and two lost teeth in interrogations. Sent to Fresnes Prison.

Boxcar Transport: 15-20 August 1944, in boxcar #1 or #2 

Buchenwald ID: 78370

Notes on Buchenwald internment: 

Transferred from Buchenwald to: Stalag Luft III, East Compound

Kriege ID: 8045

Notes on SLIII internment: 

Subsequent transfer to: Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde

Notes on SIIIA internment: 

Liberation: 22 April 1945 by units of the Red Army but held for negotiated release in early May.

Repatriation from ETO: 

Discharged: 

VA status: 

Notes on Post-War period: Accounts of experiences discounted or ignored for decades. Awarded MBE in 1965. Had an honorary Spitfire Flypast on V-E Day in May 2020. Appointed Chevalier in the Ordre National de la Region d’Honeur by the President of France in December 2020.