Biography

Family Background

Peter Stead was born on the 16th October 1925, the son of Edward and Lily Stead (nee Bowden). The Stead family had lived for a number of years in Boston Spa, and Peter's father, Edward, was living in the High Street, Boston Spa, on census day in 1921 with his mother, Mary Ann Stead, and two sisters. Also in the house on census day were three visitors, one of whom was Lilian Bowden. Lilian was a 19 year 11 month old from Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1921 Edward was a boot repairer. One year later, Edward and Lily Bowden married in Newcastle upon Tyne.

We believe that Edward and Lily had three children, one of which was Peter Stead, born on the 16th October 1925 in the Wetherby area. By 1939 and the National Registration, Edward, Lily, Peter and other family members are living at 6 South View, Collingham. Edward at this time was described as a caretaker and PO telephone operator, while Peter was described as being at school. Other details of Peter's early life are missing, but it is likely that he was called up for service in 1944 when he became 18 and he joined the RAF. He became an air gunner and was sent to Canada to join a crew and train for future operations.

Military Service

By 1944, it had become clear to the military planners that, in order to drive the Japanese back out of Burma, Malaya and Singapore, a small but well trained and equipped bomber force would be needed. Up until that time Europe had taken priority in bombers and crew, but a decision was now taken to form a bomber force of about six squadrons to cooperate with the 14th Army in the Far East to destroy enemy shipping and strategic targets at long ranges.

First the RAF needed a heavy bomber force for Air Command South East Asia (ACSEA) but no British aircraft of the required type and performance were available as all Lancaster, Halifax, and Stirling production was still needed for Bomber Command’s offensive against Nazi Germany and none could be spared. An alternative American aircraft was therefore selected. The chosen aircraft was the B24J Consolidated Liberator, known to the RAF as the Liberator BV1. These aircraft were built in the USA and supplied under the Lend-Lease arrangement.

The Liberator had the necessary range for the long flights from the airfields in India to the targets, but they needed a crew of eleven as against the usual crew of seven in a British heavy bomber. Crews had therefore to be trained and made proficient on the Liberator, and by 1944 the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) in Canada was producing aircrew in large enough numbers that some could be diverted for forming this bomber force destined for the Far East. The next problem was to find a location where training could be given that would reproduce the conditions, such as long over-ocean flights that the crews would experience on operations in the Far East theatre of war. It was decided to use the area of the Western Air Command of Canada with its vast expansive Pacific Ocean near at hand.

Right on the border of the US and Canada, south of Vancouver, with a large expanse of land was the aerodrome aptly named Boundary Bay. The current occupants were moved out and the airfield adapted to take much larger aircraft and the large numbers of these aircraft. The training unit became No. 5 Operational Training Unit (5 OTU) on the 1st April 1944 under Group Captain D.A.R. Bradshaw. 5OTU operated until 31 October 1945. Initially 17 Liberators were provided along with 27 twin engine B-25D Mitchell 11 aircraft (needed as part of the conversion to the large Liberators). The course at 5OTU was to have approximately 35 hours flying in the Mitchell and 70 hours on Liberators and it says something for the standard of training that pilots and crews could become proficient in this time – pilot training for Liberators in the USAAF was around 250 hours. The aircrew for 5OTU came from both the Canadian Airforce (RCAF) and the RAF, and were a mixture of newly trained aircrews arriving direct from the flying training schools and recently released instructors from disbanded Service Flying Training Schools along with returning aircrew from overseas operations and second tour RAF aircrew direct from the UK. This latter group had hundreds of hours on twin engine aircraft in all forms of weather and it was believed that experienced flyers would have an easier time flying in the monsoons of their future theatre of war. It has been estimated that close to 4,500 students passed through No. 5 OTU during its sixteen months of operation. The instructors all came from EATS.

A fighter affiliation flight of Kittyhawks was stationed at Boundary Bay for fighter affiliation exercises with the Liberators and for evasive action training and photo/gunnery exercises. The Liberators flew up to ten-hour flights and took part in formation exercises, bombing and pattern bombing which was practiced on at the bombing range off the coast. Other exercises in training were air-to-air firing, air to ground firing, camera reconnaissance, day and night cross country flights with full armament and bomb load. Flights varied from just over one hour to ten hours depending upon the type of exercise being carried out.

By August 1944, 5 OTU had grown to 41 Mitchells and 36 Liberators and it was clear that Boundary Bay was not large enough to take this amount of day and night flying, so a satellite airfield was opened at Abbotsford. The location of this airfield was dangerous, being near the foot hills of a mountain range only a few minutes flying time to the east and a number of aircraft and crew were lost when they flew into the hills.

On arrival at No. 5 OTU, formation of crews was left to the students themselves, this was a rather informal affair that took place in the mess. The Pilot and 2nd Pilot chose their Navigator, Bomb Aimer, and two Wireless Air Gunners at Boundary Bay. Later the crew would choose their five Air Gunners in the same fashion. While the original six man crew were learning the Mitchell systems, their future Air Gunners were acquainting themselves with the American 0.50 calibre machine guns. At Boundary Bay several Air gunners at a time were taken up in a Liberator to learn the various gun positions. At Abbotsford they would combine to complete their training as an 11 man crew on the Liberators.

Peter Stead went to No.5 OTU to train as an Air Gunner and to join a crew before coming part of the bomber force in South East Asia. On 9th January 1945, he took off in a Liberator B24J Mk VI, RCAF No. KH173 bearing the code letters ‘AZ’ on a routine navigational training flight. Liberator AZ had been built at Forth Worth, Texas (No. 44-10738), taken onto strength of the RCAF on 6th September 1944, and, after an initial period in storage, had transferred to No. 5 OTU on 16th October 1944.

The 11 man RAF crew of AZ flying with Peter Stead were:
Flight Lieutenant 44784 Kenneth Edmund Spence, DFC, 1st Pilot aged 25, from Wollaton, Nottinghamshire.
Flying Officer 153712 Cyril Irwin Mitchell, 2nd Pilot.
Pilot Officer 166362 Thomas Henry Bastable, Navigator aged 21, from Worsley, Lancs.
Pilot Officer 179019 James Francis Trickey, Air Gunner aged 36, from Carshalton, Surrey.
Pilot Officer 166 407 Robert Henry Burr, Air Bomber, aged 22 from Brimingham.
Sergeant 1597287 Peter Stead, Air Gunner aged 19 from Collingham, Yorks.
Sergeant 1671860 Frank Cocksey, Wireless Air Gunner aged 21 from Levenshulme, Manchester.
Sergeant 1369063 James Brown Cuthbertson, Wireless Air Gunner aged 24 from Glasgow.
Sergeant 3012303 Alan Simpson, Air Gunner aged 19 from Chadderton, Lancs.
Sergeant 1868102 George Arthur Snelling, Air Gunner aged 19 from Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
Sergeant 1836991 William David Newton Morgans, Air Gunner.

Unfortunately, this aircraft failed to return to its base and crashed into the sea near Bell Island, British Columbia, Canada. The Vancouver Daily Province for the following day (Wednesday 10th January) reported on page 1:

The next day another Liberator from No. 5 OTU suffered an explosion on board, and four crew members had to parachute to safety, while another three were reported missing. The Vancouver Daily Province reported this loss, and added more details over the loss of the aircraft carrying Peter Stead.

Despite the searches, no trace of any of the 11 man crew of Liberator AZ was ever found. The Royal Canadian Air Force held an investigation into the events, and I am grateful to Michael DesMazes for the following details.

On 9th January 1945, during a cross-country flight, KH 173 "AZ" descended through cloud and crashed into the sea near Bell Island, B.C. The RCAF investigation contained more than a dozen witnesses, including both civilian and military personnel. David Milne, the lighthouse keeper on Balaclava Island, was having lunch when he heard plane engines roaring somewhere over Christie Passage, but thought nothing of this as local planes and low flying were common for the area. At the time the sky was overcast with a ceiling of about 3000 feet and 40 mph winds from the Southeast. Mr. Milne later stated, "After lunch, I was talking to Mr. L. Butcher and R. V. Hunt, and they stated that they had heard a plane around 1230 hours and (from the roar of the engines), believed (the aircraft was), in trouble somewhere over Christie Passage." Upon receiving this information, (Milne), at once phoned this information to Western Air Command. Another witness was a homesteader on Hurst Island named Louis Thuot. Thuot recalled, "between 12 and 1:00 o'clock, I was standing on my front porch when my attention was drawn to a large four engined aeroplane approaching from a Northwesterly direction and flying between 200 and 300 feet high. The engines were making a terrible noise, as though they were under full power. This machine passed over the house, still going in a Southeasterly direction, and then passed from my sight over the hill behind my house. Just after, I lost site of this plane, but could still hear it, there was a terrific noise, like the whir of a bullet, and a muffled explosion, and I felt sure that something had gone wrong or happened to this plane. At no time did I see smoke or see signs of the plane being on fire." Flight Lieutenant James F. Reid, station medical officer, Coal Harbour was standing in the Village of Port Hardy, and although he did not actually see the aircraft he did hear the terrific roar of an aircraft's engines, as if the aircraft had gunned its motors, this noise, he stated "lasted for about 30 seconds and then silence". Harold E. Richard, an employee at the J & J Logging Camp on Vancouver Island, was working beside the donkey engine and facing towards Duval Point at the time of the crash. He reported "I saw a large column of water and smoke go up in the air. I figured it was about ½ mile off Duval Point". Richard was unable to hear any noise over the roar of the donkey engine he was using, however his father, who was standing some 50 feet from the machinery, heard a terrific engine roar of an aircraft for a few seconds, but did not see anything. In fact, of the more than one dozen witnesses, no one actually saw the Liberator strike the water. Flight Lieutenant Gerald Lee, the officer in charge of Air Search Rescue at Western Air Command H.Q. told the inquiry, "A search was carried out by land, sea and air from January 10th to 16th 1945 for Liberator AZ173. The object of the search was to locate any possible survivors who might have parachuted and got ashore on the mainland or one of the islands, and to try to determine the exact location of the wreck, with a view to grappling for the wreckage."

In spite of all the witnesses and the ensuing search efforts, the exact point of impact was never determined. The East coast of Balaclava Island at a point due west from Hurst Island offered the only solid evidence, since it was here that small singed parts of wreckage were picked up, leading to the theory that Liberator "AZ" hit the water at a point somewhere between Duncan and Balaclava Island and Hurst Islands. The singed fragments were later identified by Squadron Leader H. P. Hudson, Abbotsford's Officer in charge of maintenance, as being from a Liberator. Squadron Leader Hudson however admitted that there was no way of identifying these parts as definitely belonging to Liberator "AZ".

The eleven crewmen of Liberator "AZ", including Peter Stead were never found, and they were commemorated on the Ottawa Memorial. This commemorates the members of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth who lost their lives while serving in units operating from bases in Canada, the British West Indies and the United States of America, or while training in Canada and the U.S.A., and who have no known graves.

Biography last updated 22 April 2023 14:52:18.