US cemetery’s eagle returned after 25 years

A MYSTERY over the whereabouts of a 3ft-tall eagle statue stolen 25 years ago from Britain’s only US war cemetery has been solved after it was returned – on Independence Day.

Staff at the Madingley cemetery near Cambridge revealed the gold-painted metal eagle, which was originally sited on the top of a 70ft flagpole, has been returned in the middle of the night.

It was taken in 1992 when the flagpole was surrounded by scaffolding for repair.

Nothing had been seen of the bird until the early hours of Thursday morning, when CCTV captured a man parking a car at 1.30am outside the main gates by the A14, where he left the statue.

The eagle had topped the pole since the Cambridge American Cemetery was officially opened in 1956 as a permanent memorial to almost 9,000 Uk-based American servicemen and women who died in the Second World War.

After its theft, the eagle was replaced with a new design. Staff believe it may have been taken as a prank – it was returned in “very good condition” apart from damage to its talons caused during the theft. “Wherever he has been stored, he has been well looked after as he is still nice and shiny,” said Tracey Haylock, an administrator, “It may be that someone had a pang of conscience – and we did wonder if it was connected to July 4 being Independence Day.”

Cemetery authorities hope to display the eagle on a plinth somewhere on the site, she added. The cemetery was

‘Wherever he has been stored, he has been well looked after as he is shiny’

opened on Dec 7 1943 as one of three temporary American facilities in the UK. After the war, on land donated by the University of Cambridge, it became the only permanent wartime American cemetery in Britain.

It is the resting place of 3,812 men and women who gave their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic, the bombing campaign over Europe and the invasion of Europe, as well as those killed in training exercises on British soil.

The lives of another 5,127 men and women whose bodies were never recovered are commemorated on a Wall of the Missing.