Before Take Off

Dean Stanton, an Australian RAAF pilot with the 37 Squadron RAF was painted by Adams getting some rest, hours before the night's bomber command operation in Serignola, Italy. He has pulled his leather Irving jacket over himself for warmth. Though these exceedingly heavy sheep's skin lined jackets and trousers were seldom worn in the air when heating was installed in aircraft, they were popular on the ground in wintertime.

Born in 1922, Stanton worked for the English, Australian and Scottish Bank, joining the RAAF at the age of 19 where he trained at 4 ITS in Victor Harbor, South Australia, where he trained on Tiger Moths and then Avro Ansons. As a child he recalls the First World War pilots Barnstorming the local oval at Booloroo Centre and taking people for rides for 10 shillings. This began his love of airplanes and once he had completed his trainging, he was one of only three to be commissioned pilot officers and then posted to 2ED Sydney and then to EMlbourne and then by ship to San Francisco. They were rested in Boston, waiting two moths in Taunton and then departed from a port in New York with a convoy of 70 ships to Europe, via Greenland and the arctic circle so that the U boats couldn't fire on the convoy because of the extreme temperatures. They eventually arrived in Liverpool where they were immediately transferred to Bornmouth for Operational training unit in Gloucestershire, Morton on Marsh where he flew Wellingtons. Initially the trips were dropping anti war leaflets to try to encourage the antiwar sentiment amongst the German people. Stanton was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in bringing his crew who were involved in the night raids over the Balkans, South Germany and France attempting to stop German supplies from Romanian oil wells. Toward the end of the war he was posted to the Middle East, to Morroco, Tunisia where he was attached to the 15th US Airforce. In late 1945, he was posted back to Tokomone in Australia where he instructed young pilots in flying Liberators. Following the war he was involved in bringing back POW's from the Phillipines and Manilla, he was discharged from the RAAF in February 1946.