Tragic crew of LJ 630 are immortalised in a Derbyshire field

SCULPTURE UNVEILED AT SITE OF SECOND WORLD WAR CRASH THAT CLAIMED 7 LIVES

- By KEVIN PALMER

A MEMORIAL to the crew of an RAF plane which crashed in Derbyshire during the Second World War will be dedicated this weekend - nine years after a campaign was started to publicly recognise the tragedy.

The event will take place on Sunday, 81 years to the day that the seven crew perished when their Short Stirling bomber LJ 630 crashed into a field at Stanton-by-Dale near Ilkeston during a heavy thunderstorm.

The 2.5 metre metal sculpture designed by artist Malcolm Sier and produced by FC Laser based in the village stands on cages of Derbyshire limestone in a private grazing field off Dale Road so that it can be seen by passersby.

It was on the night of August 31, 1944 that the pilot and a raw crew based at RAF Wigsley in Nottinghamshire were on the last leg of a cross-country training flight when they encountered a severe thunderstorm and one of the plane’s four engines caught fire.

Rapidly losing altitude the plane managed to clear a ridge on one side of Dale Road but crashed at the bottom of a field next to Grove Farm at 11pm.