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| Sgt. Ralph Bates was B-17 waist gunner on the B-17 Roger the Lodger II. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56287633/ralph-teakle-bates https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77705411/ralph-teakle-bates https://95thbg.mmsw.eu/aircraft/101 |
Ralph Teakle Bates never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Ralph was born on May 27, 1920 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His parents Frank and Agnes were also both born in Utah. His father worked as a post office janitor and later as a government laborer. He died in 1937 from tuberculosis. Agnes found work as a cook. Ralph had two older brothers, two older sisters, and one younger sister. By 1940 Ralph had completed four years of high school and was working as a gas attendant.
He was drafted into the army and volunteered for the Army Air Forces where he became a staff sergeant in the 412th Bombardment Squadron, 95th Bombardment Group which was equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses. He was trained as a waist gunner. The 95th BG starting flying missions from England in May 1943. Sgt. Bates flew his first mission on August 12, 1943 to Bonn, Germany. He would fly a total of thirteen missions. (The 95th BG has an excellent website - see https://95thbg.mmsw.eu)
Sgt. Bates final mission was on October 9, 1943. He was the right waist gunner on the B-17 42-30377 nicknamed Roger the Lodger II. The mission that day was to bomb Marienburg, Germany. The bombing run was successful, but his plane suffered damage to the number 2 engine. The engine caught fire over the English Channel and crashed into the water. Although five men managed to bail out, there were no survivors.
His cenotaph grave is at Salt Lake City Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This is one of the final 100 stories (99) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75 anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of ALL 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest, and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Medal of Honor hero Truman Kimbro, 2nd Infantry Division. You can read about Truman here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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