War epic that ended in Ryhope

March 22, 2002

Emotions ran high as a lasting memorial to wartime hero Cyril Barton was unveiled at Ryhope yesterday to tributes paid by past and present RAF officers.

A new housing development has been named Barton Park in his honour and a plaque outlining his bravery on the night of March 30, 1944, was unveiled by Squadron Leader Rodney Burges of RAF Leeming.

The final words on the plaque quote the citation for Mr Barton’s posthumous Victoria Cross: ‘In gallantly completing his last mission in the face of almost impossible odds, this officer displayed unsurpassed courage and devotion to duty.’

Squadron Leader Burges was visibly moved as he recounted how the pilot, left without outside communication or navigational aids, found his way to home territory using the Pole Star and a knee-pad map.

Cyril Barton was hailed as a hero by villagers in Ryhope for the way in which he avoided an appalling disaster by guiding his crippled Halifax bomber away from housing, saving others at the expense of his own life.

Epic feat

But the fact that it was a near miracle that Barton had managed to reach the British coast only became clear later.

It is something that his navigator, Len Lambert, can still scarcely believe. ‘It was an epic feat,’ said Len, one of the guests at the reception held by Shepherd Homes in the Seaham Hall Hotel.

He recalled that the Halifax was attacked by German fighters en route to Nuremberg, first by a Junkers 88 and later a Messerschmitt 210.

The German fighters took out the machine guns, leaving the Halifax unable to fight back. They took out an engine - and the intercom system went dead.

‘That was our biggest problem. We had an improvised system of communication by lights, but it was easily misunderstood,’ said Len.

His part of the aircraft was on fire. He still does not recall baling out, but says ‘the next thing I knew I was in mid-air’.

The wireless operator Jack Kay and the bomb aimer, Watson ‘Watty’ Crate, also left the aircraft at that point.

Len spent two days foraging for food in the bitter cold in enemy territory before being picked up by a German farmer and handed over to the authorities.

’It was months later, in a PoW camp, that I was told in a letter from home that the aircraft had made it safely home, but that Cy Barton had been killed when it crashed,’ he said.

For after the three crewmen had gone, Cy Barton had pressed on to his Nuremberg target and after releasing his bombs, limped his way home.

Moving visit

Realising he was over housing, he banked over Ryhope, but as he ran out of fuel, he ordered his remaining crew to adopt crash positions as the aircraft came down, demolishing an end terraced house.

As a young pilot, Cyril Joe Barton knew he was staring death in the face every time he took off on a wartime mission.

In a letter to his mother, to be opened in the event of his death, he wrote: ‘I hope you never receive this, but I quite expect you will.

'I know what ops over Germany means and I have no illusions about it. By my own calculations, the average life of a crew is 20 ops . . .’

He was killed on his 19th bombing operation.

His three sisters, Cynthia Maidment, Joyce Voysey and Pam Willis, said they were delighted that his courage was still being remembered 60 years on - but they reckoned Cyril himself would have had none of it.

‘He was very down-to-earth and matter-of-fact. He would have said he was only doing his duty. He would probably have laughed at all the fuss. He was always laughing and full of fun. He was religious, but there was nothing stuffy about him at all,’ said Cynthia.

His death was a bitter blow to their parents, one from which they never fully recovered.

At the new housing development on the site of Brick Row, near where he crashed, Joyce said: ‘It is very moving to be visiting here, so close to where Cyril died and so near the anniversary of his death.’ Cyril Joe Barton died at dawn on March 31, 1944, aged 22.

top

back

Lasting tribute to war hero pilot

March 21, 2002

A lasting memorial to a gallant young wartime pilot who saved the lives of villagers by flying his crippled Halifax bomber away from their homes was dedicated in Ryhope yesterday.

Cyril Barton was returning from a bombing mission over Germany which had badly damaged his plane and displayed great skill and courage in guiding it away from homes in Brick Lane, Ryhope, instead of baling out to save himself.

Yesterday a new housing complex was named after him in front of a gathering of relatives, survivors and witnesses of his heroic action.

Barton Park, a development of three and four-bedroom detached homes, is just 200 yards from where the plane finally came to rest. It could not be more different from the row of one-up, one-down terraced colliery houses in Brick Row, the street Pilot Officer Barton would have seen from the air almost 60 years ago.

The Shepherd Homes development on the site of Brick Row

Cyril Barton, who was only 22 at the time of the wartime crash, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for completing his final mission in the face of almost impossible odds, displaying unwavering courage and devotion to duty.

But in Ryhope he is remembered as the pilot who saved the village from disaster by continuing to fly his airplane, instead of baling out to save himself.

In the event, he ran out of fuel and so could not avoid demolishing an end terraced house, whose occupants, the Richardson family, had a miraculous escape. So, too, did the remaining two crew members on the Halifax. Cyril died shortly after crash-landing.

Shepherd Homes Director John Porch said: ‘Barton Park will stand as a lasting memorial to Cyril Barton and we hope that the many people who share memories of this remarkable young man will consider this to be a fitting tribute to Cyril and his crew.’

Mr Porch said that while he was visiting the development, he went into the village and saw the plaque dedicated to Cyril Barton on the village war memorial, and decided there and then that he had found a name for the new showpiece homes.

Alan Mitcheson, a retired compositor who is now 69, witnessed the incident when he was 12. He said: ‘There have been other attempts to remember Cyril Barton's name - a nursing home, a hospital unit and a golf club committee room - but all have gone.

‘It is marvellous to have this housing development as a tribute which will last.’

As a mark of his gratitude, Mr Mitcheson presented John Porch with framed statistics about Cyril Barton and his crew and the history of his squadron.

A Ryhope Childhood

Gerry Elmy, who now lives in Tokoroa, South Waikato, New Zealand, grew up in Ryhope. Read his childhood memories.

top

back

Have your say!

Do you have views on this subject? Click on the link below to write to me and share them!

Write to Sue

Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Sue Kelly