U.K. cemetery resting place for 452nd men

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Matt Proietti
  • 452nd AMW Public Affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  Fourth in a series 

Thirty men killed while serving in the 452nd Bombardment Group during World War II are buried at an American military cemetery near Cambridge, England. 

They are among more than 3,800 GIs whose graves are decorated with headstones in the shape of crosses or Stars of David in the 30.5-acre Cambridge American Military Cemetery run by the American Battle Monuments Commission on land donated in 1944 by Cambridge University. 

The bomb group, predecessor of March Field's 452nd Air Mobility Wing, flew B-17 Flying Fortresses from Deopham Green airfield about an hour's drive east of Cambridge. 

The renowned school donated land for use as a temporary graveyard, but the site was later selected as the only permanent U.S. World War II cemetery in the British Isles. Dedicated in 1956, it features a chapel, reflecting pools and a Wall of the Missing, where the names and particulars of more than 5,100 people are etched, including an unknown number of 452nd members. 

Though many of those buried there were Army Air Forces' members serving in England, others died in the invasions of North Africa and France. The bodies of nearly 60 percent of GIs temporarily interred in England and Northern Ireland were returned to their families stateside following the war. 

Second Lt. Sidney Solomon, 86, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., attended a funeral there after eight fellow crew members were killed in an Oct. 12, 1944, crash in England aboard the Inside Curve. They were buried in graves dug by German prisoners, one of whom smoked a cigarette and laughed as he worked, Lieutenant Solomon recalled. 

"I never wanted to kill anyone more than I did right then," he said. "Really, it took all that I had not to." 

Three members of the Inside Curve crew remain interred there. 

The commission that runs the graveyard commemorates the achievements of U.S. armed forces since April 6, 1917, when the U.S. entered into World War I. The Cambridge site is one of 14 permanent American World War II military cemeteries built on foreign soil. 

It hosts a ceremony the last Monday in May, which coincides with Memorial Day in the U.S. Though the United Kingdom doesn't recognize the same holiday, the event draws many English citizens and government representatives each year as well as Air Force participants from nearby RAF Lakenheath. 

Tiny U.S. and British flags mark each grave site that day and more than 100 wreaths are laid at the Wall of the Missing, many by veterans who served in the Army Air Forces in the East Anglia area northeast of London. 

Martin Jeffery, lifelong resident of the Deopham Green area and 452nd history buff, attends the ceremony each year with his wife, Miranda, who handcrafts a wreath for the 452nd Bomb Group Association, a fraternal group composed largely of World War II veterans, their families and those who lived near the base. 

A recent memorial ceremony featured several aerial passes by a P-51 Mustang, RAF Spitfire and the Sally B, the only flying-capable B-17 in the United Kingdom. The Sally B, one of the Flying Fortresses used in the 1990 movie Memphis Belle, is based at Imperial War Museum Duxford south of Cambridge. 

The names and particulars of more than 5,100 men are etched into the Wall of the Missing, which was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

"The Americans, whose names here appear, were part of the price that free men for the second time in this century have been forced to pay to defend human liberty and rights," he said. "All who shall hereafter live in freedom will be here reminded that to these men and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with grateful remembrance of their sacrifice and high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live eternally." 

The Wall of the Missing features statues of young men from various U.S. services. Of the missing, 3,524 are from the Army and Army Air Forces, 1,371 from the Navy, 201 from the Coast Guard and 30 from the Marine Corps. The dead are from every state in the union, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Some also entered service from Canada, Chile, Denmark, England, Greece, Holland, Malta, Norway, Panama, Portugal and Scotland.