‘An extraordinary ceremony’
On April 24, a yearly commemoration was held in the community of Bérismenil, Belgium, of the crash of a B-17 into a nearby hillside during World War II, held at a monument to the pilot and all others killed during the war. The ceremony was just one of many set around Europe for 2024, this year of 80th anniversaries of World War II battles.
Among those taking part was Margraten American Legion Post NL01 of Brunssum, Netherlands, which has done so since 2018. As Andy Clevenger, retired from the Air Force and NATO, explained, “The local Belgian people and their students commemorate and memorialize the World War I and World War II monuments to all casualties (military and civilian), coinciding with the anniversary of the crash.” He called it “an extraordinary ceremony.”
Isabelle Engels, a bilingual Belgian author and former NATO employee, has organized the ceremony for more than 30 years, including working with Post NL01. During that time, she has tracked down the fates of the nine surviving pilots and connected with the family of the one KIA, James H. Young. In a history of the event, she wrote: “On April 13, 1944, the 8th Air Force bombed the ball-bearing manufactories at Schweinfurt a few minutes after the attack by the Luftwaffe on the formation without escort.
On board the Joker, Technical Sgt. James H. Young (top turret) was killed by a 30 mm ammunition. The aircraft was so damaged that the crew bailed out between Vielsalm and Bérismenil. Hearing a low-flying B-17, the villagers of Bérismenil went out to see what was happening. Three parachutes were drifting in the sky. The aircraft slammed into the hill nicknamed ‘the Crestelles’ around 1500 hrs., and the fire set up the entire hill. The mayor, Joseph Mottet, and the villagers searched for survivors but only found the burned body of Young. Other villagers helped put out the fire.”
A memorial to the Joker crew was erected near the crash site in 1984. In 1992 the American unit of the NATO AWACS group inherited responsibility for it. This year’s ceremony included stops and remarks at the World War II monument, World War I monument, B-17 monument and the crash site itself, where the Joker’s last minutes were recounted.