I contacted John Ashdown after seeing a message he'd left on the World War II Ex RAF website. He was asking for anyone that may have links to his uncle Ronald Stares who served in 206 Squadron. Ronald was born 01.06.1918 to his father Frederick Walter Stares and mother Harriet Stares. He enlisted on the 27.06.1940 and it's believed he trained in Ireland and Canada. John sent the following photographs of Ronald. I was contacted in November 2007 by Moira Edge whose father George William Cairns is also on this photograph, Moira was able to put names to all the faces on this photograph and the next one below.

March 6th 1943

Left to Right on the Wing:  Sgt Norris - F/S Bickell

W/Cmdr Romanes - W/O Marriot - Sgt Stares - F/S Baldwin - Sgt Clough - W/O Cairns


On the 6th January 1944 at 1812 hours they surprised U-Boat 270 on the surface and attacked, 6 minutes later there was radio silence, the U-Boat had shot them down. They were flying in a Flying Fortress II FA705 'U' that is a similar marked aircraft to that recorded in Ken's logbook back on the 9th April 1943 but it was FA705 'O' not 'U'.  The crew members that had been shot down were:

Squadron Leader Anthony James Pinhorn (DFC) - Aged 28
Flying Officer Joseph Henry Duncan (Co-Pilot)- Aged - 24
Squadron Leader Ralph Duncan - Aged 33
Flying Officer Francis Dennis Roberts - Aged - 34
Warrant Officer Ronald Norman Stares - Aged - 25
Warrant Officer Class 1 Donald Luther Heard - Aged - 35
Warrant Officer Class 2 Oliver Ambrose Keddy - Aged - 24
Flight Sergeant Thomas Ekersley - Aged - 31
Sergeant Robert Fabian - Aged 24
 
An investigation into Ken's logbook yielded 2 interesting finds...

1] There are 4 separate flights recorded in a Fortress with Ken as Pilot and a 'Sgt Stares' as a member of the crew, these were all in 1942: On the 25th October they conducted an A/S Escort to Force; 29th October an A/S Escort & Convoy Search; 29th November an A/S C.L.A Search and the 1st December an A/S Sweep.

2] There is a flight recorded in a Fortress with Ken as Pilot and a 'Sgt Fabian' as a member of the crew on the 5th November 1942, conducting an A/S Escort. As the flights with both Sgt Stares and Sgt Fabian are so close and they both happened to be part of the same crew on that fateful flight on the 9th April 1943 I'm pretty sure that Ken did fly with them both the year earlier!

Some further photographs of Ronald