Bomber flypast hero is back at memorial
THE pensioner who tends a memorial to US bomber crew killed in a plane crash in Sheffield has been inundated with good wishes, a day after a flypast he helped instigate.
There have also been calls for Tony Foulds, 82, to be given a gong for his dedication to the crew of the B-17 Flying Fortress, known as Mi Amigo.
The bomber was returning from a raid on Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1944 when it crashed, killing the crew of 10.
The plane had been deliberately steered into woodland to avoid houses and Mr Foulds, then eight, who had been playing in a park with his pals.
The pensioner, who feels partly responsible for the crash, visits the memorial six days a week.
Yesterday, Mr Foulds made his usual seven-mile trip to the site but was continually stopped by passers-by. An elderly man told him: “You need to stop feeling guilty. It was the Germans who killed those men, not you.”
Another said it would be “a travesty” if he wasn’t given a knighthood.
Mr Foulds said: “It’s just amazing. They’ve not stopped coming up and shaking my hand.
“I had a letter from an American this morning. It said, ‘This proves what we’ve always thought – that you Brits do love us’.”
The flypast by US and RAF aircraft was watched by 12,000 people on Friday – the 75th anniversary of the crash.
BBC Breakfast’s Dan Walker campaigned for the flypast after bumping into Mr Foulds in the park.