Darwin L. Ritchey
Corporal, U.S. Army Air Forces

Darwin L. Ritchey was born on 5 August 1925, the son of Leo Arthur and Lillie M. Friberg Ritchey.

In August 1944, Corporal Darwin L. Ritchey was serving as a waist gunner with the 758th Bomb Squadron, 459th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 304th Bombardment Wing, 15th Air Force, based at Giulia Airfield, Italy. The 459th Bombardment Group flew B-24 Liberator bombers on missions in Italy, France, the Balkans, Austria and Germany.

On 22 August 1944,CPL Ritchey was the left waist gunner on B-24J Liberator bomber Serial Number 42-52344 that was on a mission to bomb a synthetic oil refinery at Blechhammer, Germany. The aircraft had a crew of 9.

The following statement from 2LT Harold Rau, Jr., the navigator-bombardier of aircraft Serial Number 42-52344 on 22 August 1944, tells what happened that day. “SGT Chamberlain was flying as tail gunner on our aircraft. We had experienced no flak or fighters until immediately after bombs away when we ran into a solid curtain of flak. Our hydraulic system was smashed in the bomb bay and our wing tanks were hard hit. We lost our formation almost immediately after, and charted our course for Lake Balaton. About an hour and a half later we had just sighted it when the pilot reported over the interphone that two enemy fighters were closing in on us. We couldn’t fire the guns due to the vapor springing from the gas tanks so we ditched all ammunition, guns, flak suits, and loose equipment to try and out maneuver the fighters. Our pilot, 1LT Ruff, also rang the alarm bell to ‘stand by to bail out.’ The interphone system gave out a minute later. The fighters sent 20mm shells ripping all through the plane but suddenly drew off. I went forward and had the nose gunner go back to see how things were in the waist. A moment later he came back with this report: The ball gunner was dead, the radio operator had severe shrapnel wounds about the face, the waist gunner had one leg nearly shot off and the tail gunner, SGT Chamberlain, had apparently misunderstood the signal ‘stand by to bail out’ and had actually bailed out. Possibly his bailing out together with the smoke that was coming from our bomb bay, caused the enemy fighters to withdraw. Our position at the time was approximately forty-six degrees, thirty-seven minutes East, seventeen degrees five minutes North, over Hungary. That is all I know what possibly happened to SGT Chamberlin.” The aircraft later ditched in the Adriatic and four crew members were rescued.

The 4 crew members that were rescued were Returned to Duty (RTD) shortly after their rescue; pilot 2LT Ruff and co-pilot 2LT Mills, were both Lightly Wounded in Action (LWA). SGT Chamberlain became a Prisoner of War (POW) and was repatriated and Returned to Military Control (RMC) in 1945. The other 4 crew members were Killed in Action (KIA). (See details below.)

Medals, Awards and Badges

Purple Heart
Air Medal with Award Numeral 2
Army Good Conduct Medal
American Campaign Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Army Air Forces Aircrew Badge

B-24J Liberator bomber Serial Number 44-40326 had the following crew members on 22 August 1944.

● Pilot: 2LT Sidney L. Ruff, Jr. [Honoree Record ID 308583] RTD on 2 September 1944
● Co-Pilot: 2LT Robert W. Mills [Honoree Record ID 308584] RTD on 1 September 1944
● Bombardier/Navigator: 2LT Harold Rau, Jr. [Honoree Record ID 308585] RTD (Date unknown)
● Engineer/Gunner: SGT Melvin Mendelson [Honoree Record ID 76481] KIA
● Radio Operator: SSGT August M. Dietrich, Jr. [Honoree Record ID 308586] RTD on 29 August 1944
● Left Waist Gunner: CPL Darwin L. Ritchey [Honoree Record ID 77367] KIA
● Right Waist Gunner: CPL Albert Murillo [Honoree Record ID 76727] KIA
● Ball Turret Gunner: CPL Glen L. Allen [Honoree Record ID 199174] KIA
● Tail Turret Gunner: SGT Earl A. Chamberlain [Honoree Record ID 308587] POW

Memorialization

Corporal Darwin L. Ritchey is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial in Florence, Provincia di Firenze, Toscana, Italy.

Corporal Darwin L. Ritchey is also memorialized with a cenotaph at Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls, Otter Tail County, MN.

[The information in this biography was derived primarily from various sections of the 459th Bombardment Group website at http://www.459bg.org/ and permission was granted for its use.]