A new memorial is to be unveiled this weekend on the 80th anniversary of a plane crash which killed six American airmen.
Lutton’s St Nicholas Church will officially unveil a new wooden bench, close to the site where the US Army Airforce B-17 Flying came down on April 26, 1945.
It was based at RAF Sudbury and the crew were practicing over The Wash when it collided with another aircraft.
While that was able to return to base, the B-17 crashed in a field off North Drove at Lutton Marsh.
Six of the eight men on board the bomber died in the incident.
Long Sutton and District Civic Society and Lutton Parish Council wanted to place a permanent memorial to those who lost their lives, but the crash site is on private land.
Instead they approached the church which has helped put up the memorial bench and will host an exhibition on the incident which includes fragments from the aircraft.
It’s being unveiled this Sunday (April 27).
A spokesman for the civic society said: “The crash was witnessed by local people who rushed to help, and stories of the event 80 years later still live on in and around this small village community.
“Direct memories though of the young men who were onboard that day, are held dear by the relatives of those that died and perhaps as poignantly, by the direct descendants of the two airmen (Navigator 2nd Lt Vincent Colletti and Bombardier 2nd Lt. Robert Bradley) who survived.
“We hope that when people rest on this bench, they will remember the airmen who died in this crash and of all nationalities who fought and died for our freedom.”
The ceremony will start at 2.30pm with a march to the bench being led by the RAF Air Cadets from Holbeach.
The dedication will be led by Rev Canon Andrew Hawes and there will be talks by Harold Payne who is taking along his US landing craft and Suffolk-based historian Anne Grimshaw.
She found an old pilot’s flight bag belonging to the commander of the B-17 Clyde R Simmons who died alongside 1st Lt Donald L. Williamson (the pilot), 1st Lt James G. Olsen (co-pilot and observer), Sgt John J. Hill (engineer and gunner), Sgt Robert L. West (radio operator and gunner) and Sgt Edward G. Geron (tail gunner).
Though family members are not set to be at the ceremony, the civic society is recording the event to send to them.
