William "Bill" Howard Ritchie

William “Bill Howard Ritchie was born on April 20, 1919, in Victor, Colorado to parents August Julius and Ada Margaret Anson Ritchie. His father August, a Swedish immigrant, worked as a construction foreman for the Western Machinery Co. August died in 1923 when Ritchie was only two years old. After her husband died, Ada opened up her house to boarders to be able to provide for her family. Later in the 1940s, she worked as a dietician for the Y.W.M.C. He had an older brother, Orville (1911) and a younger sibling, Eugene (1923). Sometime between 1920 and 1923, the family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Ritchie attended South High School in Salt Lake City where he was involved in multiple extracurricular activities like Accountancy, “C” Football, Swimming, Tennis, Scribe, Southerner, Debate, Booster, Opera, and Track. During the 1935-1936 academic year, Ritchie competed in the Sons of the Revolution Oratorical Contest with his oration “The Evolution of Patriotism.”

Ritchie attended WSC from 1936-1938 and studied Business Administration. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and ran on the Track team. After he completed the spring 1938 semester, Ritchie moved back to Salt Lake City and transferred to the University of Utah for the 1939-1940 academic year. In 1940 while living in Salt Lake City, Ritchie worked as a salesman for an advertising agency.

In 1942 while living in Salt Lake, Ritchie enlisted in the Army Air Corps. That same year, Ritchie married Salt Lake City native Mary Louise "Mary Lou" McGarry. Mary Lou received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Utah where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Later in September, Ritchie went to military training and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. In 1943, he was promoted to first lieutenant while stationed at Wendover Field, Utah. Ritchie was part of the 563rd Bomb Squad of the 388th Bomb Group. The unit was activated December 24, 1942, at Gowan Field near Boise, Idaho and was moved to Wendover Field in February 1943. It was during this time when Ritchie would have joined the 388th. In May, the bomb group moved to Sioux City, South Dakota. The 388th was officially assigned to the 8th Army Air Force in June 1943, not long before it departed for England. Ritchie and other 388th members arrived at their base camp in Knettishall, England on June 23. The group flew strategic bombing missions from June 1943 to the end of the war.

Ritchie was the Bombardier for B-17 Flying Fortress plane #42-5907 nicknamed “Wing and a Prayer.” The remainder of crew included Pilot Warren Fuller, Co-Pilot Tom Scanlon, Navigator Frank Haminski, Flight Engineer and Top Gunner Paul LeBrun, Radio Operator Hector Watson, Ball Turret Gunner Lacy Collinsworth, Waist Gunner Mike Lattieri, Waist Gunner Arthur Boyd and Tail Gunner Warren McClure. On July 25, Ritchie and the rest of the ten-person flight crew left England for Hamburg, Germany on a mission to bomb the Hamburg diesel engine works. However, due to cloud cover, they bombed the Rerik-Zweedorf airfield instead. On the flight back to England, German fighter pilots attacked the American aircrafts. During this attack, Ritchie’s aircraft went missing. The other returning American aircraft crews were uncertain of when they saw Ritchie’s aircraft for the last time. The “Wing and Prayer” did bomb the target with the other aircrafts but went missing after. Ritchie’s airplane was last seen being attacked by enemy aircraft fire. It was believed that the airplane crashed down in the North Sea on its way back to England on July 25. The entire ten-man crew were killed. The remains of two of the crew members, Pilot 2nd Lt. Warren H Fuller and Navigator 2nd Lt. F.W. Haminski washed ashore and the other eight, including Ritchie, were unaccounted for.

Ritchie is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, the 388th Bomb Group (H) Memorial in Knetishall, England, and the Washington State University War Memorial.  For his service in the war, Ritchie was posthumously awarded an Air Medal and Purple Heart. He was survived by his mother, Ada, brothers Orville and Eugene, and widow, Mary Lou.

Ritchie’s mother, Ada died in 1957. Ritchie’s older brother, Orville, also served in World War II. He was a Staff Sergeant in the Army Air Forces and served 20 months in the Western Pacific as a B-29 gunner. In February 1945 Orville was wounded and later discharged in November 1945. Orville died in King, Washington on June 20, 1999, at the age of 88. Ritchie’s younger brother Eugene died in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 2, 1962, at the age of 38. While he was alive, he worked as a salesman for Cobusco Steel Products.