William John Tytherleigh

William John Tytherleigh, known throughout his service as “Johnny,” was born in Cambridge on 8 November 1921 and grew up in Hove, Sussex, after his mother remarried and he took his stepfather’s surname. He joined the RAF in 1940 and qualified as an air gunner the following spring, going on to complete a full operational tour on Hampdens with No. 50 Squadron before being commissioned in 1942. He first flew with Henry Maudslay’s crew on an operation to Cologne in February 1943 and moved with them to the newly formed No. 617 Squadron, where he served as front gunner. On the night of 16/17 May 1943, during Operation Chastise, he manned the front turret of Lancaster ED937, coded AJ-Z, which made the second attack on the Eder Dam; the crew’s Upkeep mine was released too late and detonated against the dam’s parapet directly beneath the aircraft, badly damaging it. Limping homewards, the Lancaster was hit by light flak near Emmerich in the early hours of 17 May and crashed with the loss of all seven crew. Because Tytherleigh’s remains could not be individually identified from those of two of his comrades, he is buried in a collective grave at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany; he was 21 and was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.