Mi Amigo memorial

The Mi Amigo memorial is a war memorial at Endcliffe Park, Sheffield, England, marking the World War II crash site of the USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress Mi Amigo.

Mi Amigo memorial
Coordinates53.368978°N 1.5078983°W / 53.368978; -1.5078983
LocationEndcliffe Park, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
TypeWar memorial
MaterialTwo bronze plaques, attached to a boulder
Dedicated date1969 (1969)
Dedicated toThe ten crew members of Mi Amigo

Air crash

On 22 February 1944 the heavily damaged USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft Mi Amigo was returning from a bombing mission over Aalborg, Denmark. Around 5pm, engines faltering, it emerged out of low clouds and crashed in the park with the loss of all ten crew.

The pilot of Mi Amigo, from the 364th Bomber Squadron, based at Chelveston, Northamptonshire, was Lt John Kriegshauser who received a posthumous US Distinguished Flying Cross for his courage in sacrificing the crew rather than hit children playing in the park. Among the children were Tony Foulds, then eight years old, and Keith Peters, aged nine, who was interviewed by Forces Broadcast Network (British Forces Broadcasting) for a 2015 documentary also broadcast on Sky TV.

When viewed from Rustlings Road/Ecclesall Road the crash site can still be seen, marked by a noticeable drop in the height of the trees on the hillside behind the cafe. This was because a dozen trees were uprooted, or needed felling, due to the impact of the crash. Some remaining trees still bear scorch marks at their tops, noticeable when viewed in winter.

Memorial

A grove of ten scarlet oak trees (Quercus coccinea) was planted on 30 November 1969 as replacement trees to honour the crew,[1][2] and on the same day a pair of memorial plaques attached to a large boulder were unveiled in a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Alderman Daniel O'Neill; the Bishop of Sheffield, John Taylor, and Major General John Bell, Commander of the 3rd US Air Force in Britain.[2][3] Since 2015, Tony Foulds has maintained the memorial, which for many years had been cared for by local military cadets, alongside the parks department. Mr Foulds' caretaking involves sweeping the path and watering the flowers in the Memorial Garden, which were all donated by garden centres and well-wishers.

An interpretation board including a painting of Mi Amigo, by South Yorkshire artist Paul Rowland was placed near the memorial by Sheffield City Council in time for the 75th anniversary of the crash in 2019.[4] A flagpole was also erected,[1] having been donated following a crowdfunding drive by a local school[5] by Boeing Europe, and the pupils of Birkdale School, Sheffield.

An annual memorial service organised by the Sheffield branch of the Royal Air Forces Association is held at the site on the Sunday closest to 22 February.[6]

Inscriptions

The upper of the two plaques reads (all in upper case):

Erected by
Sheffield R.A.F. Association
in memory of
the ten crew of U.S.A.A.F. bomber
which crashed in this park
22-2-1944
Per Ardua Ad Astra

The lower plaque lists the names of the ten crew members. Lt Kriegshauser (whose name is spelled wrong on the plaque) was pilot; Lt Lyle Curtis (co-pilot); Lt John Whicker Humphrey (navigator); Lt Melchor Hernandez (bomb-aimer); Sgt Robert Mayfield (radio operator/log-keeper/photographer); Sgt Harry Estabrooks (flight engineer/top-turret gunner); Sgt Charles Tuttle (lower turret gunner); Sgt Maurice Robbins (rear-gunner); Sgt Vito Ambrosio (waist-gunner and assistant radio operator) and Sgt George Malcolm Williams (waist-gunner and assistant flight engineer).

Flypast

In January 2019, BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker met Tony Foulds, by then a pensioner. This led to Walker publicising Fould's wish for a commemorative flypast over the memorial.[7]

On 22 February 2019, at 8:45 am, the United States Air Force (USAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out a fly-past to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the crash.[8] The ten aircraft involved were, in order:[8][9]

The names of all ten of the Mi Amigo crew were painted onto the F-15Es.[9] The F-15Es flew on to perform a second flypast at the American Cemetery and Memorial at Cambridge, where three of the crew are buried,[9] the others having been repatriated.[10]

Thousands of members of the public watched the flypast from the park, alongside relatives of the deceased air crew.[8] BBC Breakfast was broadcast live from the event with Foulds as a featured guest, although Walker was unable to attend being in Tanzania, from where he watched the event online.[8] The related hashtags "#RememberTheTen", "#TonyGotAFlypast", "#MiAmigo75th" and "#sheffieldflypast" were trending on Twitter.[8]

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References
  1. "The Stars and Stripes Flies over Sheffield". The American. 19 February 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  2. "Unveiling of stone and plaque in memory of Flying Fortress crew (Mi Amigo) which crashed in Endcliffe Park on 22 Apr [sic] 1944". Picture Sheffield. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  3. Access to the memorial site is via a path signposted 'Woodland Walk', or across the stepping stones next to the cafe.
  4. "Further details of next Friday's unique US flypast". Sheffield City Council. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  5. Mason, Emma (5 February 2019). ""We got Tony a fly-past": how BBC's Dan Walker organised tribute to WW2 plane crash heroes in Sheffield". History Extra. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  6. "Mi Amigo: the Fate of a Flying Fortress". h2g2. 13 January 2006. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  7. "Sheffield bomber crash: Fly-past to mark anniversary after campaign". BBC News. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  8. "Fly-past honours bomber-crash crew". BBC News. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  9. "Here it is, the full flypast in #Sheffield". @BBCBreakfast. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  10. "Cambridge American Cemetery commemorate American Airmen involved in the Endcliffe Park incident". The American. 24 January 2019. Retrieved 22 February 2019.

Further reading
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