Posted By Jelle Reitsma on April 04, 2007 at 05:26:39:
November 29, 1944 a B-17 bomber ‘Little Guy’ (532 BS 381 BG from Ridgewell AB, Essex, UK) returning from a mission over Germany, crashed near the canoe pond on the premises of the public swimming pool ‘Bosbad’ (nowadays ‘Kristalbad’) in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Over Apeldoorn, with only one engine working and two ‘hang-ups’ in the bomb bay, the pilot, 2Lt Kyle Scott Smith, ordered his crew to bail out and he kept on flying his crippled plane to ensure that his crew could bail out and to avoid a crash in the built-up area of Apeldoorn. He lost his life but saved the town of Apeldoorn for a disaster.
Mr. John Meurs, who witnessed the crash as a nine year old boy, suggested the erection of a monument for 2Lt Kyle S. Smith some years ago, but at that time he got no response.
In the meantime things have changed. We – a working group that published the book ‘Apeldoorn ’40 ‘45’ the story behind the Apeldoorn War monuments – are planning a monument in the vicinity of the crash site. The monument will be a large natural stone with a plaque. The text for the plaque is ready; besides the text we would like to depict a topside view of a B-17. This view should be good quality in .EPS,.CDR of .PDF format. Who can help me out?
Jelle Reitsma