I
went to school in Sheffield, impressive to see the memories.
A
touching event in Sheffield, UK this week. In 1944 an american
B17 bomber plane crashed in Endcliffe Park with the loss of all 10
flight crew. The plane had been on a raid to Denmark but had
been severely damaged by Nazi enemy fighters and had limped back to
the UK. It had hoped to get back to its base in Suffolk
but eventually had to descend through the clouds and found itself
100 miles adrift, over Sheffield. The park has a large grassy
area but in coming down the crew realised that there were children
playing there so they tried waving to the children for them to move.
The children thought the waving was just for them and they waved
back. Eventually, the pilot put the plane into an embankment at one
side of the park and all crew perished.
In
1959 a small memorial was built on the site of the crash and for many
years one man (Tony Faulds-- who was one of the children at the time
of the crash) has tended it, particularly because of guilt feelings
he had. A couple of months ago Tony started to raise the wish that
the 75th anniversary of the crash should be marked by a fly-past
and gradually this gained momentum, with the UK-based american
airforces agreeing. This took place and was impressive.
Thousands of people turned out to watch it and it dominated BBC TV
news broadcasting at the time.
The
flypast concluded with a pack of 4 F15 fighters flying in
formation with one climbing vertically and doing a complete
roll.
A
search on Google looking for the event in Sheffield/Endcliffe Park/
flyover should find info if you want to look further and see video.
The plane was named Mi Amigo.
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