Sergeant William Ruth
Air Gunner 158 Squadron, RAF
At the bottom of the grave it reads:
For honour liberty and truth He sacrificed his glorious youth
Where is the grave?
With the Polish airmen’s graves, at the far end of the cemetery.
The Barrow News, 20 Feb 1943Barrow Sergeant Killed In Accident
The funeral will take place today of Sergt. William Ruth, aged 21, gunner in the R.A.F., who was killed in an accident.
The son of Mrs Smith and the late Mr. Ruth, 32, Provincial-street, Barrow, he was formerly a pupil at Barrow Grammar School, and prior to joining up two years ago was in the employ of the L.M.S. Railway Company.
Halifax DT696 near Stillingfleet, Selby.
On the night of 14th/15th February 1943 the crew of this aircraft were tasked with Ops to Cologne and they took off from base at 18.16hrs. Soon after taking off the one of the aircraft's port engines failed. The aircraft was heavily loaded and because the forward speed was still fairly slow the pilot appears to have considered a forced landing. The bombs were dropped near Appleton Roebuck in open country but soon after the aircraft stalled and crashed at 18.30hrs just to the west of Stillingfleet sadly killing the whole of the crew. Why there were two navigators on board is not known, one would expect there to have been a bomb aimer in the aircraft on an operational flight.
Pilot - F/O Gerald Bevill Herbert RAFVR (116456), aged 20, of Theale. Buried Theale Churchyard, Berkshire.
Navigator - F/O Reginald Flood RAFVR (124712), aged 26, of Staveley. Buried Staveley Cemetery, Derbyshire.
Navigator - Sgt Arthur Bruce Langeland RAFVR (1260753), aged 26, of Staines. Buried Staines (London Rd) Cemetery, Middlesex.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt Sidney William Cains RNZAF (405472), aged 24, of Kerikeri, Auckland, New Zealand. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Flight Engineer - Sgt John Rust Mace RAFVR (1225368), aged 29, of Brundall. Buried North Walsham New Cemetery, Norfolk.
Air Gunner - Sgt Dennis Booker RAF (610543), aged 22, of Wybunbury. Buried Wybunbury Churchyard, Cheshire.
Air Gunner - Sgt William Ruth RAFVR (1074263), aged 21, of Barrow in Furness. Buried Barrow in Furness Cemetery, Lancashire.
On the 14th February 2008 a memorial plaque in remembrance of this crew and incident was dedicated inside Stillingfleet church. This replaced an original memorial which used to be seen close to the crash site at the corner of a field nearby. Villagers had researched the incident for the history group and the second memorial came about through their efforts. [Source]
