Today there will be a flypast at Endcliffe Park by two USAF F-15E Eagle jets to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the B17 "Mi Amigo" which crashed there.
Anyone else think this was a Rugby League thread?
Yup!
Anyone else think this was a Rugby League thread?
yep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Challenge_Cup
I was there on a last minute thing with the girl I was dating at the time - she lived down there, I said "let's swing by" and we ended up with tickets 10 rows back on the half way line for £10 each as someone hadn;t turned up and his mate sold us the tickets cheap. The only downer on the day was that I'm from Wigan...
Came here for the Rugby League. Now disappointed
Are there 12 of them?
Whilst at SHU I lived with a lad in 93-94 who played part-time for them. He used to come home injured all the time. He didn't mind playing Wigan or Bradford, it was away games at places like Whitehaven that used to scare him. He had several bad concussions that season
Tough as old boots
Today there will be a flypast at Endcliffe Park by two USAF F-15E Eagle jets to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the B17 “Mi Amigo” which crashed there.
Why this crash in particular? The list of wartime crashes is pretty long.
I’d forgotten this was happening today and got a bit of a fright when the flew over my house. Bloody loud.
The 2019 flypast was very impressive.
Fyi idlejohn
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi_Amigo_memorial
From Wikipedia
On 22 February 1944, the USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft Mi Amigo, from the 364th Bomber Squadron, based at Chelveston, Northamptonshire, was returning from a bombing mission over Aalborg, Denmark, during which it was heavily damaged by enemy fighter aircraft. Around 5 pm, engines faltering, it emerged out of low clouds and crashed in the park. The entire crew (pilot 1st Lt. John Kriegshauser, copilot 2nd Lt. Lyle Curtis, navigator 2nd Lt. John Humphrey, bombardier 2nd Lt. Melchor Hernandez, flight engineer/top turret gunner S/Sgt. Harry Estabrooks, radio operator S/Sgt. Bob Mayfield, ball turret gunner Sgt. Charles Tuttle, waist gunners T/Sgt. Malcolm Williams and Sgt. Vito Ambrosio, and tail gunner Sgt. Maurice Robbins) perished.
The pilot of Mi Amigo, John Kriegshauser, received a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross for his courage in sacrificing himself and his crew, rather than allowing the plane to hit children playing in the park. Among the children were Keith Peters, aged nine, who was interviewed by Forces Broadcast Network (British Forces Broadcasting) for a 2015 documentary also broadcast on Sky TV, and Tony Foulds, aged eight, whose dedicated care for the site of the crash the site drew media attention which helped publicise and improve the memorial, and inspired a flypast tribute to mark both the 75th, and 80th anniversaries of the 1944 tragedy.
The collision site is still visible from Rustlings Road and Ecclesall Road, which run past the park, due to a distinct decline in tree height on the hillside behind the cafe. This was due to the fact that twelve trees had to be cut down as a result of the crash's impact. Some of the surviving trees still have burn marks on their tops, which are visible in the winter
Thanks willyboy - so the standout part is that they sacrificed themselves to avoid civilian casualties.
