Ribble Valley Commemoration

摘要

Eleven airmen who died in separate crashes in Lancashire in World War Two were commemorated in November as part of a Heritage Lottery-funded project by Clitheroe Youth Forum to honour the 25 killed in 15 air crashes between 1940 and 1949 in the Ribble Valley and the Trough of Bowland. The forum aims to place stones at or near all the crash sites, ending next year with a memorial boulder to all the victims. Memorial stones were unveiled and blessed at two separate sites on November 29. The first service was at Pendle Hill in honour of an Australian pilot, who died in a Boulton Paul Defiant on October 24,1942, and an American whose Republic P-47 Thunderbolt crashed on February 6,1944. Another ceremony at Salter Fell later that day remembered nine airmen from Australia, New Zealand, Poland and the USA killed in four crashes between 1940 and 1945. Forum chairman Mel Diack said members of the forum had been researching local people killed in action during both world wars when they came across the stories of airmen who died in accidents.