Family’s cross-Atlantic pilgrimage to witness memorial to 22 crash victims
An American pensioner travelled to Redenhall to pay her respects to her father, who died in a mid-air crash 80 years ago.
Patricia Muller and her family, who live in the United States, gathered in Green Lane, near to the top of Cuckoo Hill, to see the unveiling of a memorial to mark the anniversary of the tragedy on April 11, 1945.
Mrs Muller, from New York, was two months old when her father, 2nd Lieutenant Pasquale Pellicci, of 706 Squadron from the 446th Bomb Group, the lead navigator and mission commander, perished with 21 colleagues.
The pair of B-24 Liberator bombers collided at 3.50pm whilst preparing to land at Flixton Airfield after returning from a mission over Regensburg in Bavaria, south-east Germany. There were no survivors.
Mrs Muller’s family were supported by members of the Royal British Legion, the Royal Air Force Association and more than 100 guests at a service to mark the occasion.
A minute’s silence was held to echo the exact moment of the crash 80 years ago, before an inscribed memorial recording the names of all who died was unveiled.
Trumpeter Peter Moy played Taps – the American version of The Last Post – and American ex-pat Laurie Atkins sang the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, while a United States flag was raised above the memorial.
Jon Duckworth, from the Harleston branch of the Royal British Legion, who helped to organise the commemoration along with fellow member Terry Pegg, paid a poignant tribute.
He said: “In this quiet moment of remembrance on a spring afternoon in the English countryside, our community is honoured to share in Pat and her family’s pilgrimage to the site, where her father, her daughter’s grandfather and her children’s great-grandfather, perished with his comrades 80 years ago – we will remember them.”
The final confidential report on the incident declared it a ‘mishap’ and Mrs Muller pondered on that as she spoke at the memorial.
“So it was that mishap that has brought us all together in gratitude to you for your remembrance, in the hope that your grandchildren and mine will never suffer the agony of another world war.”
Earlier in the day, the family had been greeted at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum in Flixton to see a number of artefacts from her father’s Liberator aircraft, which were retrieved from the crash site.
They were later welcomed into Harleston for afternoon tea at the Swan Hotel, with 22 American flags - one for each airman lost – flying throughout the town centre.
The memorial marker, inscribed with the names of both aircrews, was crafted and gifted by stonemason Spencer Wix and the development of the event was supported by Susan Whymark, of Susan Whymark Funeral Service.
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