I am proud to be supporting the campaign for a national memorial to commemorate Handforth’s unsung war hero William Douglas Stopford and his comrades from the RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.
Flight Sergeant Stopford was born to Sidney and Eunice and went on to marry his sweetheart Bessie, also from Handforth.
In August 1944 F/Sgt Stopford, of 540 squadron, having only been in the unit two years, was killed aged just 24, after his aircraft was shot down over Hallstatt. He had been flying a reconnaissance mission over Munich. He was part of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (set up in September 1939) which provided the most up to date, critical, intelligence to the Admiralty.
The covert and dangerous nature of the operations meant pilots often flew solo, and their planes were unarmed and stripped back which allowed them to outpace the enemy but also left them more vulnerable to attack. The PRU death rate was nearly 50 per cent, one of the lowest survival rates in the war.
The unit captured more than 26 million images of enemy operations and installations for allied war effort. These pictures were all compiled, categorised, analysed and reported on within 24 hours of the aircraft returning to the UK.
The work was essential in helping end the quicker. It helped with the planning of major milestones, including the planning of D-Day (also known as Operation Overlord) the most significant victory of the allies. In the months before the invasion, low-level reconnaissance flights over Normandy provided critical intelligence about German beach defences and key infrastructure. Without the PRU, the Admiralty would not have had the intelligence it needed for operations like D-day. Without them, history would have taken a different course.
Experts now believe that aerial photography produced 80 per cent of the intelligence used for the strategic planning of the allied tactical campaign.
The work done by these quiet heroic young servicemen as well as women (many were involved in interpreting the photos) should not be underestimated. Yet, unlike many of the armed forced, the daring pilots, navigators or interpreters do not have their own memorial. This needs to change.
I highlighted the heroism of F/Sgt Stopford earlier this month in Parliament, and I have been working with the Spitfire AA810 Project to deliver on its project for a permanent memorial to honour the 1,746 PRU aircrew and the 635 photographic interpreters and will continue to do so.
It is high time the work of the PRU and those who served in it were honoured by the entire country.
