Qualla: Mi Amigo memorial

Mi Amigo memorial: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AndyScott, CC BY-SA 4.0. Tony Foulds was eight years old when he saw the plane come down. He and his friends were playing in Endcliffe Park on the afternoon of 22 February 1944 when a B-17 Flying Fortress emerged out of the low cloud above Sheffield, one engine flaming, the others failing. The boys waved. The plane banked away from them, clipped the trees on the wooded ridge behind the park café, and exploded. All ten men aboard were killed. Tony has spent most of the last sixty years sweeping the path that leads to their memorial. He is in his late eighties now. He still comes most days.

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Image: AndyScott | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mi Amigo memorial: Ten Names

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian S, CC BY-SA 2.0. The aircraft was Mi Amigo - Spanish for 'my friend' - flying with the 364th Bomb Squadron of the 305th Bomb Group, based at RAF Chelveston in Northamptonshire. On the morning of 22 February she had set out for a raid over Aalborg in occupied Denmark and had been mauled by Luftwaf...

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Image: Ian S | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mi Amigo memorial: The Last Minute

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neil Theasby, CC BY-SA 2.0. What happened in the final seconds has been told many ways. The popular Sheffield version - the one that crystallised in the city's memory and that Tony Foulds carried with him for most of his life - is that the crew saw the children in the open meadow of the park and steered awa...

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Image: Neil Theasby | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mi Amigo memorial: Ten Oaks, One Boulder

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neil Theasby, CC BY-SA 2.0. The site was quiet for a quarter century. Then on 30 November 1969 a grove of ten scarlet oaks - Quercus coccinea, one for each man - was planted on the hillside behind the park café. A boulder was set among them, carrying two bronze plaques. The upper plaque, erected by the Shef...

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Image: Neil Theasby | CC BY-SA 2.0

Mi Amigo memorial: The Flypast

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neil Theasby, CC BY-SA 2.0. In January 2019, BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker met Tony in the park and learned of his wish for a commemorative flypast on the 75th anniversary. The story spread. At 8:45 on the morning of 22 February 2019, thousands of people gathered around the memorial as ten aircraft pas...

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Image: Neil Theasby | CC BY-SA 2.0