Air Gunner – Service Number 940562
158 Squadron Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Neville Christian Stocker was born in Aston on 17th May 1911. He was one of four children born to William Neville Stocker and his wife Grace née Christian. He married Freda Cook in 1935 and a son was born in 1939. At this time Neville was working as a Development Engineer for Electrical Appliances.
WW2
Record show that Neville enlisted with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was posted from Squadron 104 into Squadron 158 on 14th February 1942 when it was reformed. He was based at RAF Drillfield in Yorkshire and operated as an Air Gunner on board Vickers Wellington MK 11 Medium Bombers which flew night raids to Germany and occupied France.
Operation Warnemunde
On 8th May 1942 Neville was the Air Gunner in a six man crew which took off 2230 in a Wellington W5562 from Driffield. It’s task was take part in an attack against Warnemunde.
Warnemunde was the terminus of the train ferry to Denmark which the Germans used to carry troops and supplies to Norway, and also contains a U-boat training base and important aircraft factories.
The plane crashed in the Baltic off the port of Rostock. Only the observer on the plane, Sergeant Withers, survived and he was captured and held as a Prisoner of War. Neville is recorded as having died on 9th May 1942 along with the Pilot Flight Sergeant Ian Wynn Davies, Sergeant John Peter Dixon Clarke, Pilot Officer Robert Macfarlane Davies and Pilot Officer Charles Stacey Neveu.
