Suffolk-born Cyril Barton, always known as 'Cy' to his friends, trained as a pilot in the USA in the early 1940s and by July 1943 was the captain of a Handley Page Halifax bomber with 78 Squadron. He was commissionec in September and by the end of October he had completed five operations. A quiet man and a devout Christian, he was the epitom of the strong silent type that made such outstanding bomber captains. On November 11,1943, he brought his flak-damaged Halifax back from Leverkusen, Germany, to a crash landing at Woodbridge in Suffolk. Soon back on operations, he and his crew flew on the first raids of the Battle of Berlin. In January 1944, they were transferred to the newly-formed 578 Squadron at Burn near Selby, Yorks.
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