Cyril Joe Barton

Cyril Joe Barton was born at Elveden in Suffolk on 5 June 1921 and grew up in New Malden, Surrey. He was working as an apprentice engineer at the Parnall aircraft works, and studying part-time at technical college, when he volunteered for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in April 1941. Commissioned as a pilot officer in the autumn of 1943, he was posted to No. 578 Squadron, flying the Handley Page Halifax from RAF Burn.

On the night of 30/31 March 1944, captaining Halifax LK797 ‘Excalibur’ against Nuremberg, Barton’s aircraft was attacked by German night-fighters some seventy miles short of the target. The bomber was badly hit — fuel tanks holed, the intercom and rear turret knocked out, an engine crippled — and in the confusion a misread signal sent three of the seven crew, the navigator, bomb aimer and wireless operator, baling out into captivity. Left without a navigator or any means of communication, Barton flew on alone to bomb the target, then nursed the crippled Halifax back across the North Sea for more than four hours on failing engines. Crossing the English coast far from any airfield and too low for the rest of his crew to jump, he steered the aircraft clear of the houses of Ryhope, County Durham, and crash-landed at the colliery at first light. His three remaining crewmen survived; Barton was pulled from the wreck alive but died of his injuries, aged 22. A local miner, George Heads, was killed on the ground.

He was buried at Kingston-upon-Thames Cemetery, and posthumously promoted to flying officer. In June 1944 he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross — the only one given to a member of a Halifax crew for a single act of gallantry.