Nine killed in WW2 bomber crash remembered

Eighty years after nine airmen lost their lives in a bomber crash in Surrey, a service to commemorate them has been held.

An American Air Force B-17G flying fortress bomber crashed during bad weather in Reigate while returning from a mission over Germany on 19 March 1945.

On Wednesday, a service took place at the crash site on Reigate Hill.

Tim Richardson, an RAF veteran and historian for the National Trust in Surrey, said: "The aircraft flew over Reigate, startled a bus queue, disappeared into the clouds covering the hill. A huge crash, silence and that was it."

Flying in formation, the American crew had been told to split up to avoid collision and to make their way back to base after the weather "closed in" at the English Channel, he added.

Mr Richardson said the reaction at the time was one of "horror".

"The impact was so severe that all nine men died almost instantly," he told BBC Radio Surrey, adding that one crewman was found half a mile (0.8km) away from the plane wreck.

The crash site is now marked by a pair of carved wing tips and cared for by the National Trust.

Sculptor Roger Day completed the memorial on the North Downs Way for the 70th anniversary of the crash.

It replicates the size of the destroyed aircraft and includes fuselage aluminium from the crash.

He told Secret Surrey: "It's so tragic, because of their bravery obviously. But also being so near the end of the war, they could have been home, free."

The service featured a wreath-laying ceremony, including one presented by US Air Attaché Lt Col Dan Benson, and the head boy and head girl of The Royal Alexandra and Albert School.

HM Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, Michael More-Molyneux, said Lt Col Dan Benson's attendance was a "powerful testament to our shared history".

He added: "The presence of our cadets and scouts at the ceremony brought a sense of reverence and the passing on of history from one generation to the next."

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