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Geoffrey Dalton Stephenson, CBE was a Royal Air Force Air Commodore, and former commandant of the Royal Air Force Central Flying School and Central Fighter Establishment, and Aide-de-Camp to the monarch. Commanding a squadron during the Dunkirk evacuation, Stephenson was shot down and taken prisoner. Stephenson was killed in an air crash on 8 November 1954 while on a tour of the United States. ==Background== The 44-year-old pilot had flown several thousand hours in fighter aircraft, both conventional and jet, during his 20-year RAF career. He had piloted virtually every type of British jet fighter including Meteors, Venoms, Hunters and Swifts, as well as USAF F-86s. He was considered one of the most experienced and capable fighter pilots in the RAF. Commodore Stephenson was married and father of three children. Before the Second World War, Stephenson had been a member of the Royal Air Force aerobatic team. As squadron leader of 19 Squadron based at RAF Duxford, he was shot down on Sunday, 26 May 1940, in Spitfire Ia, ''N3200'', coded 'QV', while covering the evacuation of the Dunkirk beaches during Operation Dynamo, landing his fighter on the sands at the shoreline. It was reported that he got away from his plane as fast as he could and walked something like a hundred miles through enemy territory ending up in Brussels where he went to the US embassy, which refused to take him in as they were not yet involved in the war. With nowhere to go he surrendered and became a prisoner of war. Multiple escape attempts led to his transfer to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle where he would participate in the creation of the never-flown Colditz Cock glider. Following the war, Stephenson served as the personal pilot for King George VI. 〔http://www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/raf1939/stephenson.html〕 Remarkably, Spitfire ''N3200'' was rediscovered and salvaged from the beach in 1986, and restored to flight in March 2014, with the markings worn when it was downed.〔http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restorations/spitfire-mk-ia-n3200-flies.html〕〔Cha 4 programme Guy Martin's Spitfire, The rebuilding of Geoffrey Stevensons Spitfire Date of Programme 12th October 2014〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geoffrey D. Stephenson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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