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James J. Ryan . United States Navy USS Houston from Mount Laurel, NJ During World War II, James Ryan served for three years in the Navy, including aboard the USS Houston, a light cruiser commissioned in 1943.
He was on the ship in the South Pacific in 1944 when it was torpedoed. Survivors wound up in the water for several hours before they were rescued. Mr. Ryan and those who were not wounded floated in life jackets or hung on to the life rafts where they had put the injured sailors.
But the crippled USS Houston did not sink. It was towed to a nearby port, and Mr. Ryan rejoined the ship a couple of weeks later, eventually helping to nurse it back through the Panama Canal and to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it was repaired.
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Sgmn. James Ryan . South African Army Union Defence Force James Ryan was captured in the Desert campaign and survived the train wreck on the Orvieto North railway bridge at Allerona, Italy, with multiple wounds to the lower back.
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AC1 James Charles Ryan . Royal Air Force 51 Wing from Dublin (d.31st May 1940) James Ryan was the son of Charles and Catherine Ryan of Dublin.
AC1 Ryan was attached to No.51 Wing. He was returning from Flanders on HMS Bideford when the ship was attacked by the enemy on 31st May 1940 during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
He is buried in the Kilgobbin Burial Grounds, Kilgobbin, Dublin, Ireland.
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F/O John Patrick "Buck" Ryan . Royal Canadian Air Force pilot 15 Sqd from Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. (d.18th May 1942) After leaving Waimate College John met his future wife in Timaru and married in Melbourne after which they returned to New Zealand. John then travelled to the U.S. to study and, when he had completed the course, his wife joined him and they both worked for Bernar McFadden in Dansville, New York. While at Dansville, John Ryan learned to fly. When war broke out, they waited for their son (John Jnr) to be born (November '39) and then tried to get a booking for mother and son to return to New Zealand. Being war time, this took some time, but they finally secured a cabin on the Port Hunter. After their departure, John Ryan travelled to Canada to enlist in the RCAF, he trained with 11 OTU from 27 Jun 41, then joined 15 Sqn on the 1st of August 1941. He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 16th of March 42.
He was killed along with his crewmates on Monday 18th May 1942 he was 30 years old.
The crew were:
- F/O Ryan
- S/L J.C.Hall DFC MiD
- F/L N.G.R.Booth
- Sgt A.Spriggs
- F/O J.P.Ryan RCAF
- Sgt R.Maycock
- Sgt J.B.Butterworth
- Sgt F.L.Sharp
- Sgt R.Nicholson
- Sgt D.J.Jeffs, the only survivor was taken PoW and held in Stalag 8b.
For the full story see Don Jeff's Story
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Sgt. John Christopher Ryan . British Army Irish Guards (d.2nd January 1943) John Ryan is buried in the Cashel (St. John the Baptist) Catholic Churchyard, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
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Cpl. Michael "Paddy" Ryan . Army 2nd Btn. Hampshire Regiment. from Ireland My father, Cpl Michael Ryan, usually known as Paddy, 2nd Hampshires, was captured in Tunisia at Tebourba in December 1942 and was a prisoner in Sicily and mainland Italy until June 1943 when the Germans transported him to Stalag IVB. He was Irish and served in the Irish Army until 1939. After his enlistment ended he went to England and enlisted in the Hampshire Regiment in November 1939 in Southampton. Because he was an Irish Army reservist he was treated as a deserter when he returned to Ireland after repatriation, so he came back to England and married a Land Army girl from London.
He remebered being liberated by the Russians and walking with a large group of others until they reached the American lines. His close friend in Italy and Stalag IVB was Brian Probyn, a tank driver captured at the same time as himself and who become a well known film cameraman after the war, finishing up in Hollywood in the 1970s.
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Pte. Michael Christopher Ryan . British Army 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment from Buttevant, Co Cork Michael Ryan, son of Timothy and Margaret, came from Buttevant, Co.Cork Eire. He joined the British Army before 1937 joining the Middlesex Regiment, the Die Hards. He fought in defence of Hong Kong he was captured on Christmas Day 1941. He was imprisoned in Sham Shui Po camp. He was later transported by hell ship to Japan where he laboured on the docks. He survived his captivity and returned home. He died in late June 1977 at Chadwell Heath Hospital, Ilford.
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Pte. Michael Christopher Ryan . British Army 1st Btn. Middlesex Regiment from Buttevant, Co Cork Michael Ryan, son of Timothy and Margaret, came from Buttevant, Co. Cork, Eire. He joined the British Army in 1937 joining the 1st Middlesex Regiment, the Die Hards.
He fought in defence of Hong Kong and was captured on Christmas Day 1941. He was imprisoned in Sham Shui POW camp. He was later transported by hell ship to Japan where he laboured in the docks. He survived his captivity and was liberated in September 1945.
He returned home. He died on the 30th June 1977 at Chadwell Heath Hospital, Ilford, Essex
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F/O Patrick Joseph Ryan . Royal Air Force 101 Squadron from Milngavie (d.24th Aug 1943) On the 24th August 1943 the 101 Squadron lost their lives on returning from a bombing raid over Berlin. The aircraft was never recovered and it is possible that it came down over the English channel.
Names of crew:
- John Phillip Mahoney ; Captain
- Patrick Joseph Ryan
- Archibald Eric Thomas Hill
- Dennis Marshall Walder
- Frederick Edward Phillips
- John William Lowe
- Joseph Eric Woodgate
My uncle was Patrick Joseph Ryan he was aged 24 when he lost his life. Although he was childless when he died I wanted to record the few small details that I have in the hope that they might be of interest to any possible descendants of the other crew members. I also hoped that someone else might have other information that could be added to their story.
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Sid Ryan . Home Guard Feltwell Btn.
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Pte. Thomas Ryan . British Army 1st Btn. York and Lancaster Regiment from Barnsley Thomas Ryan served with the 1st Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment in WW2. He was captured in Norway and arrived at Stalag XXA on 28th of May 1940 until 22nd of September 1940. He transferred to Bau-und-Arbeits Battalion 40 on 26th of January 1942 and later was transferred to Bau-Und-Arbeits Battalion 20 on 10th of March 1943. Thomas was again moved on to Stalag 344 on 20th of November 1944.
Tommy was shot while in Norway and still had the bullet in him when he arrived back home after weeks of being marched around by the Germans in bitterly cold weather. The imprisonment affected his mental health for many years. He had a loving family awaiting his return.
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Urban Gerrard "Jack" Ryan . Australian Imperial Force 2/11th Btn. My uncle, Urban Gerrard `Jack' Ryan was a member of the 2/11th AIF, captured on Crete on 6th June 1941 and interned first at Stalag VIIA, then transferred to Stalag VIIIB in October 1941. Does anyone remember him? Does anyone know which route the death march took when he left VIIIB.
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PFC. William Arthur Ryan . US Army Co. L 335th Infantry Regiment from Charlestown, Massachusetts William Ryan served with 84th Division in Co.L 335th Infantry Regiment. He was involved in battles in the Rhineland and Ardennes, Central Europe Campaign.
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L.M. William Charles Ryan . Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm from West Kensington, London My grandfather William Ryan served in the Fleet Air Arm until 12th February 1945.
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P/O Gerald Ernest Ryan. . RCAF 426 Sqd. (d.30th Sep 1944 )
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Fireman Angus Ryce . Naval Auxiliary Personnel HMS Forfar (d.2nd Dec 1940)
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Able Sea. Leonard Wright Ryce . Merchant Navy SS Carperby (d.1st Mar 1942) Able Seaman Leonard Wright Ryce served on board SS Carperby and died, age 24, on the 1st March 1942 when his ship was sunk by U-588.
He was born in Jarrow 1917, the son of Mrs. Sarah E. Robson (nee Ryce) of Chesham, Buckinghamshire. (Sarah E. Ryce married Shadrick A. Robson in 1925)
He is commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the entrance of Jarrow Town Hall and on the Tower Hill Memorial.
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Sgt. Wladyslaw Rychtarski . Polish Army Annastr Mijn vader is vastgehouden in dat kamp. Ik heb zijn tag van toen, hij had deze op zijn riem geklonken.
Hij was sergant in het Poolse leger. Is ontsnapt uit het kamp en door de linies via Frankrijk naar Engeland en Schotland gekomen.
Is later in Vlissingen gaan wonen.
My father, Wladyslaw Rychtarski was detained in that camp. I have his tag from then, he had it on his belt riveted.
He was Sergent in the Polish army. Escaped from the camp and through the lines via France to England and Scotland.
Later went to live in Flushing.
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Sgt. D. H. Ryder . 97 Squadron
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GJ Ryder . British Army GJ Ryder served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Harry Ryder . British Army 25th Light AA Rgt. Royal Artillery My father, Harry Ryder, after enlisting in 1940 was posted to the 25th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery. He then went to Egypt and the Western Desert. It seems he was with the 81st and 82nd Light AA Batteries. They were later incorporated into the 1st Armoured Division. On 11th December 1942 he was posted to the Royal Artillery Depot in Egypt. He was then shipped back home and endured two torpedo attacks on two separate ships. Later he was in North West Europe with 745 Tipper Company. It's a long shot but does anyone have any memories relating to these?
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F/Lt. Norman Ryder . Royal Air Force 41 Squadron
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R Ryder . British Army Royal Armoured Corps R Ryder served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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P/O. Thomas Joseph Ryder . Royal Air Force 7 Squadron from Tooting (d.11th April 1943) Pilot Officer (Wireless Op./Air Gunner) Thomas Ryder was the son of Joseph L. and Dorothy May Ryder of Tooting, Surrey, husband of Norah Veronica Ryder of Tooting.
He was 22 when he died and is buried in the Luxembourg (Hollerich) Communal Cemetery in Luxembourg.
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Veronica Ryder . Womens Land Army from Everton, Liverpool I am researching my mother's life and I know she served in the Women's Land Army in WWII. Her name is Vera Vanson. I believe she may have worked in either Liverpool or Wales. I would love to speak to anyone who has information about Vera even papers but best of all, any photographs please?
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Rfn. Victor Ryder . British Army 2nd Btn Rifle Bgde. 7th Armoured Div. My father Victor Ryder was a Desert Rat. He was with MEF 7th Armoured Division Rifle Brigade, 2nd Btn, C Coy, Carrier Platoon RFN.
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Pte Joseph Herbert "Bert" Ryding . British Army 5th Btn King's Regiment and South Lancashire Regiment from Standish, Wigan Private 3776184 Joseph Ryding of the 5th Kings and South Lancashire Regiment 2nd of April 1940 and served with the Kings Regiment until 25th of July 1944.
On 7th of June 1944, he was injured. Following injury he joined up with the South Lancashire Regiment until 19th of December 1944. He was seriously injured by a shoe mine on 16th of October 1944, during the Battle of Overloon and the liberation of Venray. He was taken to a school field hospital in Stevensbeek, a village next to Overloon.
In 1990, during a visit with veterans organised by the Wappenbruder (War Brothers) he visited the school, lay down in the hall, stared to the ceiling and said: "Yes they put me here, I recognise the ceiling!"
He was later transferred to Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton, then to Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge and Childwall Hospital, Liverpool.
He was discharged because he did not fulfill military physical requirements. He had lost his lower right leg and parts of several fingers.
Despite this he went on to live a full and productive life.
The following is an account of D Day and later activity, found after his death.
"6th of June 1944 D Day: The order came to get into the landing craft. The seas were mountains of water, black and cold. All around as far as the eye could see were other ships of all sizes and shapes. Suddenly on our left we saw a ship split in two, why, we never found out but the bows rose into the air then the stern just like a huge V, but no time to worry about them poor beggers. The faces of my mates and mine also told its own story, what did the immediate future hold. Then into the craft and lowered into that awful water and away circling round until all the other landing craft were in some kind of straggly line. The job was under way.
How many were in the boat I don't know. My pal Harry [Gartside] like me like us all, wondered if we'd make it. A bet was made who would be sick first. He lost and later paid me the five Francs which I still have. What a racket. Big guns firing, shells whizzing overhead. Then the rocket ships opened up - what a sight. Flaming metal, scores of them flying skywards like a hailstorm. The beach and houses a long way off came into view, the craft beached and out we dived into three foot of water.
Then we realised what war was about and I know how small was my contribution. The top half of a body bobbed about then a few legs, then more bodies - must have been hit by machine guns and mines. It was a terrible shock.
On the beach this wasn't Blackpool or Tenby but for real. The RE officer, fine big red-haired fellow, was taking his men up to the shoreline when a tremendous bang, showers of sand and mud flew up and he was another number on a war memorial. It sickened us but we didn't forget to flatten ourselves down. Then a barrage of air bursts came over, not very funny when you don't know what it's all about, a nasty pain in the right ankle at the back and I'd got a shell splinter. My fighting day was over.
One of our medical orderlies took me to a dressing station, a short journey I'll never forget. Lined up on the foreshore were lines of stretchers, scores of them with mostly dead men on them; occasionally one stretcher had a poor soul crying for help or his mother but no-one had time to care for these. Then to a huge gun site and in the cellar wounded men being dressed and sorted out. The rest of the day was spent sitting around watching this huge war machine roll along, planes by the hundred bombing not a mile away, gliders crashing in the fields beyond, smoke from houses burning, dead men, Jerry and ours, crying men, tanks bogged down in the sand, hundreds of all kinds of craft. It was a huge masterpiece of showmanship but inside of me I was sick, terrified and hoping to wake up from this nightmare. Not only me but thousands of blokes like me.
That evening the walking wounded crawled, hobbled or somehow made our way to a beached craft which took us out to a hospital ship. On the way a ship discharging cargo hailed us: "This is the captain speaking. Thank-you for what you have done today. We are proud of you and wish you well."
I'll never forget that moment. Someone really cared, someone who still had to find out what it was all about.
August Monday, Bank Holiday: Again my feet on French soil via the Mulberry Harbour because my scratch had healed and I was fodder again. This time what a change. The South Lancasshires decimated so we were broken up (the 5th Kings) and joined that mob. Few weeks rest, across the Seine, the Maiss (I think) then a course on how to be a soldier. I passed with top marks, a joke surely after all the training I had had. A stripe? Not on your life and the company CO wasn't impressed by my refusal and said "But you'd be a section commander just the same" so I couldn't win.
Holland, Nijmegen, a Bridge Too Far eh! We crossed it in and out, eat more German pork and smoked Dutch cigars that would kill a donkey. Vandalised houses for pillows or blankets (the owners could be dead or something so it didn't matter to us) after all the usual topic was will we make it? A good excuse for doing what we wanted. Nothing criminal though.
This village, that hamlet, then the 12th October we had to go for Venlo and Venray in Holland because of the railway importance. Half my section wiped out by air bursts. Today, Thursday, no deaths just leg, arm and or neck wounds. God why wasn't I one to get away from the nightmare of digging in, no sleep, eating any mush that turned up, smoking inside your tin hat to hide the glow. Why didn't they move the corpses that once looked like me, poor mum, poor dad or wife or whoever. What if they only knew how we hated this? You haven't seen them digging trenches 100, 200, 300 yards long, bringing their bundles in grey army blankets wrapped around them, boots sticking out or not always, then lowering them into that clay, blokes just like me who had never lived and yet lived to die just like some filthy vermin. God help these people who invented war. They shall grow old, not they.
Friday rolled on into Saturday. The 14th of October 1944, a cool autumn day, press on for Venlo. God, why do they send us tanks. The Jerry can see us without them stupid bastards giving them something to aim at. They were the old Desert Rats, they ought to have stopped there. Then all hell let loose, tanks hit, burning away. We dive for cover - anything - a pile of cow muck to hide behind. Then peace. We made it to the main road with a ditch on either side.
After a briefing with the CO I had to lead my section (four of us), what a laugh, to a certain point, cross the road and get behind the house at the crossroads. Not one friend in front of me only the last remains of Dutch land and the German army. All is quiet, my heartbeats could be heard in Berlin, then a slow progress up this ditch on the left of the road. A brief rest then it's over the top, across the road and into the ditch, and bang the world blows up into a red, black, green volcano with me sitting on it. Was it minutes, hours or days before the world settled down? I don't know but I remember the Jerry prisoners who were ordered to lift me out of the ditch. I remember the poor sod who trod on a mine and no doubt lost a leg, that made the score even. I am sorry it had to happen to him but he just had to be a prisoner at the wrong time. The rest is history to me and mine. The pain is still real, the fears are just as fearful and my inside aches for what I've seen. My dreams are mine alone but shared by thousands who cannot break that vow of silence. To tell would be sacrilege, a betrayal of all our mates who died in vain. The nightmare is over and yet it is with me every day, not because I want it to be but because it's the way it was meant to be. How futile, how ludicrous, how obscene and still we haven't learned.
1945: My proudest moment. Wearing hospital blues, on crutches, waiting for a tram back to Childwall from the Pier Head, Liverpool, after being on a few days leave. An old lady about 70 odd years, came to me and said: "My husband is very shy but we would both like to shake your hand and say "Thank you" for what you have done for us." Two old people who no doubt had suffered in many ways but still had time to think about me. Bless you both."
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Cpl. Bertie Rye . British Army Pioneer Corps from Downham Market Bertie Rye was my grand father. He was wounded at Gallipoli during the Great War.
He re-enlisted in the Pioneer Corps in the Second World War aged 44. Was captured by the Germans, but escaped and then served with Monty.
I am currently trying to research more of his history, a little difficult as I live now in Australia. I'd love to get more info on the 1/4th during World War 1 as I would like to build a history for his future generations to be aware of.
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Cpl Edward Arthur "Ted" Rye . British Army 2/6th Btn. Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
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Pte. Richard Conrad Duttson Ryer . British Army 9th (Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons) Btn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry from Cosham, Portsmouth, Hampshire (d.14th May 1944) Richard Ryer was my grandfather. He was the second son of William Conrad Ryer of Nova Scotia, Canada and Merwal Veda Ryer of Yorkshire. Richard's father had served as a Sergeant in the Canadian 26th Battalion during the First World War, and was awarded the D.C.M. for gallantry. Richard's mother, Merwal, had been his father's nurse when he was removed to hospital in England for injuries sustained in battle. Both of Richard's brothers, York and David, also served in battle in the Second World War, David together with Richard at Anzio.
Richard was killed in battle at Anzio on 14th May 1944. He left a wife, Laurie Hayward Ryer and twin daughters, Shirley Ida Ryer and Laurie Brenda Ryer, born in August, 1944, who he had never met.
His older sister Joan related that Richard's brother David, proceeding later from the rear, requested permission to deviate from his unit to pay his respects to his elder brother. His request was denied.
Twenty years after his death, Joan visited her brother's grave at the Anzio Beachhead Cemetery.
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