Ralph Elmer Strait was born on August 13, 1920, in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. He served in the 506th Bomber Squadron, 44th Bomber Group, Heavy, as a Staff Sergeant and Left Waist Gunner on the B-24 #41-24282 "Ruth-less" during World War II. He was Killed in Action on February 2, 1944, on a hillside at Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK, when his plane crashed while attempting to land at a small airfield near the village of Friston.
The crew had departed from their base at Shipdham, Norfolk, for an attack on a V2 missile assembly bunker at Watten, in the Foret d'Eperlecques near St Omer, northern France. The aircraft sustained substantial damage from flak on its bombing run and could not make it back to its base. An emergency landing was attempted in southern England, but in very poor weather conditions and with the loss of one engine, the aircraft could not outclimb the cloud-shrouded hill in front of it. Eight of the crew were killed instantly, while Sgts. Wilson and Bales were taken to Princess Alice hospital where they both died later that same day.
Initially, Pilot Bolin and the rest of the crew were interred at Brookwood Cemetary near Woking in Surrey, but after the war, some of the crew's families had their bodies repatriated back to the USA.
SSgt Strait is now buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
B-24 #41-24282 "Ruth-less" crew members were:
1st/Lt. James O. Bolin - Pilot
1st/Lt. Orville L. Wulff - Copilot
2nd/Lt. Edward J. Ackerman - Navigator
1st/Lt. Harold W. Schwab - Bombardier
T/Sgt. James H. Bales - Engineer
T/Sgt. Chester W. Yurick - Radio Operator
S/Sgt. James L. Wilson - Gunner
S/Sgt. Aubrey J. Maloy - Gunner
S/Sgt. Ralph E. Strait - Gunner
S/Sgt. George M. Dewald - Gunner
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov