Memorial

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William H. Richie graduated from South High School in Salt Lake City, attended Washington State University and the University of Utah.

He volunteered for the Air Corps of the Army of the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah on 14 January 1942.

The mission of the day was bombing the diesel engine works in Hamburg, but due to cloud cover the airfield of Rerik-Zweedorf was bombed.

The precise details as to the manner in which this airplane was lost are not very clear. No one of the returning crew members on the other aircraft in the group were certain of the last time they saw it. The only thing that is certainis that it bombed the target together with the rest of the formation. One crew reported it missing shortly after the formation had left the target. Another crew seemed to have felt that it broke away from the group as it passed the Danish west coast and headed to join a larger group. At that time it didn't seem to be in any particular trouble. However this airplane was last seen being attacked by enemy fighters. It is thought that the airplane must have went down in the North Sea somewhere west of the Danish peninsula. The fact that the remains of two crew members washed ashore makes it certain it crashed into the sea.

The entire crew of ten men was killed. Eight of them are still unaccounted for.

His brother S/Sgt Orville A. Ritchie served 20 months in Western Pacific as a Gunner on a B-29. He was wounded in February 1945 and received his discharge from the Army Air Forces in November 1945.