Mi Amigo Memorial

[Tommy Tainant]

I know there are a lot of ex miltary people on here. I thought that you might appreciate this.

Man's pride tending WWII plane crash site

A man who regularly tends to a memorial honouring 10 airmen who died in a plane crash in a Sheffield park says he "loves them like my own son or daughter".

Tony Foulds saw the American B-17 bomber crash in Endcliffe Park in 1944 when he was eight years old.

Since a memorial was erected in the 1970s, Tony has regularly kept plants watered and the area clean to remember the men who died.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the Sheffield man says the crew of the Flying Fortress steered away from him and his friends playing in the field before crashing into a wood.

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[jwoodie]

Referring to a raucous reunion of American flyboys in the UK after WW2, a British politician noted that although they were now men acting like boys, during the war they were boys acting like men.

The Eighth Air Force lost more men in WW2 than the entire US Marine Corps.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Well the fly past happened this morning, attended by thousands in including relatives of the dead airmen.

• Pilot Lt John Kriegshauser, from Missouri
  
  
• Co-pilot 2nd Lt Lyle Curtis, from Idaho
  
  
• 2nd Lt John Humphrey, a navigator from Illinois
  
  
• Sgt Melchor Hernandez, a bombardier from California
  
  
• Sgt Harry Estabrooks, an engineer and gunner from Kansas
  
  
• Sgt Charles Tuttle, gunner from Kentucky
  
  
• Sgt Robert Mayfield, radio operator from Illinois
  
  
• Sgt Vito Ambrosio, gunner from New York
  
  
• Sgt Malcolm Williams, gunner from Oklahoma
  
  
• Sgt Maurice Robbins, gunner from Texas
  

Sheffield flypast: man who tended WWII memorial pays tribute

Thousands have gathered in Sheffield to watch the US air force stage a flypast to commemorate 10 pilots who lost their lives during the second world war.

People travelled across the globe for the flypast, including military veterans and family members of soldiers who lost their lives on the B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft, which is also known as Mi Amigo.

The event was watched by Tony Foulds, 82, who saw the Mi Amigo crash while he was playing with friends in the park as a child.

He later learned the pilots had been attempting a crash landing in the park – the only green space for miles – but diverted course for fear of harming Foulds and his friends. Since 1944 he has quietly tended to a memorial for the US airmen.

On Friday, British and US military aircraft were dispatched from the UK’s largest US air force base in Suffolk, before flying over Endcliffe park in Sheffield at 8.45am.

 

[whitehall]

The fact that he was a witness to the crash as a child might give some incite to his obsession.

 

[bodecea]

The fact that he was a witness to the crash as a child might give some incite to his obsession.

I wouldn't call it an obsession. I would call it devotion to the men who gave their lives so he wouldn't die.

 

[whitehall]

The fact that he was a witness to the crash as a child might give some incite to his obsession.

I wouldn't call it an obsession. I would call it devotion to the men who gave their lives so he wouldn't die.

The men really didn't give their lives so he wouldn't die. They crashed in his pasture.