To nine brave airmen
Introduction
The photograph on this page of To nine brave airmen by Neil Owen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
To nine brave airmen
Image: © Neil Owen Taken: 18 Apr 2024
The memorial plaque lists the nine American flyers who lost their lives near here in WWII. The men were part of a raid of 25th June, 1944, that left R. A. F. Bassingbourn, Hertfordshire, and members of the 91st Bomb Group who were out to attack a site in France. Having sustained damage, the crew of the B-17 (serial 42-37958, LL-G, and otherwise known as 'Old Faithful') were thought to be making for Spain but tried to return to England. They apparently had lost one engine and were losing height, so the crew started to throw equipment out as they descended. Perhaps the engine fire had weakened the airframe but as the pilot, 2nd Lt. Peter Mikonis, banked the aircraft the wing collapsed and the bomber crashed nearby at Snagg Farm, Stoke Trister. See Image] for a wider location view.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.057044
Longitude
-2.40046