Stanley Vivian Calvetti

Nottingham Southern Cemetery Sec E26 Grave 38

Beaufort L9959, 22 Squadron (Coastal Command)

Sergeant S V Calvetti: killed; Sergeant Furzey: injured; Pilot Officer Stevens: uninjured; shot down off the coast of Walmer, Kent, during aerial combat after successfully attacking an enemy ship.

The Bristol Beaufort (manufacturer designation Type 152) is a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber. At least 1,180 Beauforts were built by Bristol and other British manufacturers.

Beauforts first saw service with Royal Air Force Coastal Command and then the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm from 1940. They were used as torpedo bombers, conventional bombers and mine-layers until 1942, when they were removed from active service and were then used as trainer aircraft until being declared obsolete in 1945. Beauforts also saw considerable action in the Mediterranean; Beaufort squadrons based in Egypt and on Malta helped interdict Axis shipping supplying Rommel's Deutsches Afrikakorps in North Africa.

Although it was designed as a torpedo-bomber, the Beaufort was more often used as a medium day bomber. The Beaufort also flew more hours in training than on operational missions and more were lost through accidents and mechanical failures than were lost to enemy fire. The Beaufort was adapted as a long-range heavy fighter variant called the Beaufighter, which proved to be very successful and many Beaufort units eventually converted to the Beaufighter.

The Australian government's Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) also manufactured variants of the Beaufort. These are often known collectively as the DAP Beaufort. More than 700 Australian-built Beauforts saw service with the Royal Australian Air Force in the South West Pacific theatre, where they were used until the end of the war. (Wikipedia)

22 Sqdn

Formed in 1915 as an aerial reconnaissance unit of the Royal Flying Corps served on the Western Front during the First World War. Becoming part of the Royal Air Force on its formation in 1918, it was disbanded the following year as part of the post-First World War scaling back of the RAF. During the Second World War the squadron operated in the torpedo bomber role over the North Sea and then in the Mediterranean and the Far East. Between 1955 and 2015 the squadron provided military search and rescue over the United Kingdom.

Coastal Command

The service saw action from the first day of hostilities until the last day of the Second World War. It flew over one million flying hours in 240,000 operations, and destroyed 212 U-boats. Coastal Command's casualties amounted to 2,060 aircraft to all causes and some 5,866 personnel killed in action.

During 1940–1945 Coastal Command sank 366 German transport vessels and damaged 134. The total tonnage sunk was 512,330 tons and another 513,454 tons damaged. A total of 10,663 persons were rescued by the Command, including 5,721 Allied crews, 277 enemy personnel, and 4,665 non-aircrews.

To the bitterness and resentment of many survivors, Coastal Command was not, during the immediate aftermath of World War Two, given sufficient recognition for its vital war-winning role. Veterans dubbed Coastal Command ‘the Cinderella Service’ largely ignored by a British public obsessed with Lancasters and Spitfires.