On 22 February 1944 the heavily damaged USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft Mi Amigo was returning from a bombing mission over Aalborg, Denmark. Around 5pm, engines faltering, it emerged out of low clouds and crashed in the park with the loss of all ten crew. The pilot of Mi Amigo, from the 364th Bomber Squadron, based at Chelveston, Northamptonshire, was Lt John Kriegshauser who received a posthumous US Distinguished Flying Cross for his courage in sacrificing the crew rather than hit children playing in the park. Among the children were Tony Foulds, then eight years old, and Keith Peters, aged nine, who was interviewed by Forces Broadcast Network for a 2015 documentary also broadcast on Sky TV. When viewed from Rustlings Road/Ecclesall Road the crash site can still be seen, marked by a noticeable drop in the height of the trees on the hillside behind the cafe. This was because a dozen trees were uprooted, or needed felling, due to the impact of the crash. Some remaining trees still bear scorch marks at their tops, noticeable when viewed in winter.
Memorial
A grove of ten scarlet oak trees was planted on 30 November 1969 as replacement trees to honour the crew, and on the same day a pair of memorial plaques attached to a large boulder were unveiled in a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Alderman Daniel O'Neill; the Bishop of Sheffield, John Taylor, and Major General John Bell, Commander of the 3rd US Air Force in Britain. Since 2015, Tony Foulds has maintained the memorial, which for many years had been cared for by local military cadets, alongside the parks department. Mr Foulds' caretaking involves sweeping the path and watering the flowers in the Memorial Garden, which were all donated by garden centres and well-wishers. An interpretation board including a painting of Mi Amigo, by South Yorkshire artist Paul Rowland was placed near the memorial by Sheffield City Council in time for the 75th anniversary of the crash in 2019. A flagpole was also erected, having been donated following a crowdfunding drive by a local school by Boeing Europe, and the pupils of Birkdale School, Sheffield. An annual memorial service organised by the Sheffield branch of the Royal Air Forces Association is held at the site on the Sunday closest to 22 February.
Inscriptions
The upper of the two plaques reads : Erected by Sheffield R.A.F. Association in memory of the ten crew of U.S.A.A.F. bomber which crashed in this park 22-2-1944 Per Ardua Ad Astra
The lower plaque lists the names of the ten crew members. Lt Kriegshauser was pilot; Lt Lyle Curtis ; Lt John Whicker Humphrey ; Lt Melchor Hernandez ; Sgt Robert Mayfield ; Sgt Harry Estabrooks ; Sgt Charles Tuttle ; Sgt Maurice Robbins ; Sgt Vito Ambrosio and Sgt George Malcolm Williams.
Flypast
In January 2019, BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker met Tony Foulds, by then a pensioner. This led to Walker publicising Fould's wish for a commemorative flypast over the memorial. On 22 February 2019, at 8:45 am, the United States Air Force and Royal Air Force carried out a fly-past to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the crash. The ten aircraft involved were, in order:
The names of all ten of the Mi Amigo crew were painted onto the F-15Es. The F-15Es flew on to perform a second flypast at the American Cemetery and Memorial at Cambridge, where three of the crew are buried, the others having been repatriated. Thousands of members of the public watched the flypast from the park, alongside relatives of the deceased air crew. BBC Breakfast was broadcast live from the event with Foulds as a featured guest, although Walker was unable to attend being in Tanzania, from where he watched the event online. The related hashtags "#RememberTheTen", "#TonyGotAFlypast", "#MiAmigo75th" and "#sheffieldflypast" were trending on Twitter.
