Richard Bolitho

Richard Bolitho was born on 19 January 1920 in Derry, then part of a still-undivided Ireland, the only child of William Bolitho, a Cornish-born commercial traveller in the seed trade, and his Irish wife Jane. The family moved to England when Richard was a boy, settling first in Cumberland and later in Nottinghamshire, and he won a scholarship to Heanor Secondary School. He joined the RAF in 1940 and, having qualified as an air gunner, crewed up during training with the men he would serve alongside, eventually flying as rear gunner for pilot Bill Astell; the crew passed through 9 and 57 Squadrons at Scampton before being posted to the newly formed No. 617 Squadron in the spring of 1943. On the night of 16/17 May 1943, during Operation Chastise, Bolitho flew in Avro Lancaster ED864 AJ-B as part of the first wave heading for the Möhne Dam, but on the outward leg over Germany the aircraft struck a high-tension pylon and electrical cables near Marbeck and crashed in flames in the early hours of 17 May, killing all aboard. Sergeant Bolitho, who was 23, is buried with his crew in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, having been reinterred there after the war from an initial grave at Borken; his headstone bears the inscription “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” He is remembered as the only airman from Ulster to take part in the Dambusters Raid.