Journey into the past
FLIGHT PATH: In 1944 a plane flown by American airmen crashed in a Sheffield park killing all 10 on board. Seventy years on, Stephen McClarence speaks to one man who has discovered the real story of what happened that day. Main pictures by Simon Hulme.
OWARDS teatime one winter afternoon in 1944, a Sheffield industrialist’s wife was feeding the hens in her garden when she heard the whirr of aircraft engines overhead. She glanced up and saw an American bomber flying unusually low. Later that evening she told a newspaper reporter what happened next:
“I waved to it as I always do when I see a plane pass over. Then it came lower and gave what I thought must be a victory roll, and I was pleased to think the boys aboard had seen me wave and were answering. Suddenly the bomber made three terrific spins and plunged earthwards. There was a terrible crash and a sudden uprush of flame.”
The plane, a B17 “Flying Fortress” bomber, ploughed into a hillside in Endcliffe Park, a few hundred yards from where Mrs ABH Clerke – her Christian name wasn’t reported – was standing. It had flown across the city, with flames reportedly trailing back from its wings, and was so low over the rooftops that other eye-witnesses said they could make out the faces of the crew. All 10 members of that crew were killed as the plane hit the ground, uprooting trees. It broke up and burst into flames.
The background to the crash, an amazing story of Second World War heroism, has passed so vividly into local legend that Sheffield Council is marking its 70th anniversary by erecting a sign to guide visitors to the memorial at its site.The memorial is a rough-hewn block of stone at the foot of a shady, rather lonely, hill across a stream from the park’s cafe and children’s playground. Surrounded by 10 specially planted oak trees, it was unveiled in 1969 and carries two brass plaques honouring the crew.
They were being brought back from a European mission by the stricken bomber, which they had named Mi-Amigo (my friend). According to the traditional version of events, the pilot steered the plane away from dense housing and children playing in the park. But is this true?