Dambusters airman from Wakefield honoured with blue plaque

Sgt Wilfred Ibbotson's RAF squadron was killed on their return journey after destroying the Möhne dam in Germany

A blue plaque honouring an airman who died in the Dambusters raids is to be installed in a village near Wakefield.

Sgt Wilfred Ibbotson was 29 years old when he was killed in 1943, while returning from a mission to destroy German dams.

Sgt Ibbotson was one of 53 airmen killed in the famous missions which launched on 16 May.

The plaque will be installed on a cottage where he lived in West Bretton, Wakefield Council said.

Born in nearby Netherton in 1913, Sgt Ibbotson lived at Bretton Lodge Cottage on Park Lane where he was employed as a chauffeur for Lord Allendale, who owned the Bretton Hall estate, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

He joined the RAF aged 26 at the start of World War Two in 1939, becoming a gunner in the 617 Squadron raids to destroy dams in Germany's Ruhr Valley, in a mission known as Operation Chastise - and later the Dambusters raids.

Sgt Ibbotson was a chauffeur living in this West Bretton cottage when he joined the war effort in 1939

Sgt Ibbotson was killed with 52 other airmen during the return flight from the overnight raid on 16 May 1943 when the Möhne dam was attacked.

He was buried with the other crew in Bergen General Cemetery in Germany.

He was one of three Wakefield-born airmen who were commemorated at a memorial in 2023 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Dambuster raids. The others were Flt Sgt William Hatton, and Pilot Officer Cyril Anderson.

The plaque's applicant, David Woodhead, said he wanted to commemorate Sgt Ibbotson so the public would know more about his "heroic deeds, shortening the war and thus saving thousands of lives, albeit at the cost of his own".

The 20in (50cm) plaque on the cottage will be mounted on a gable wall visible from Park Lane, and will show the 617 Squadron badge, Wakefield Council said.

Sgt Ibbotson's name is engraved on the war memorial in West Bretton

It will be "entirely in keeping with the very interesting historical nature of [West Bretton] and nearby war memorial," Mr Woodhead said.

Sgt Ibbotson's daughter Pamela Jackson and Wakefield Civic Society were both consulted on the plan.