Mémorial de la forteresse volante

On the road to the Crestelles viewpoint, there is a memorial to Allied aviation at the site where a flying fortress crashed on 13 April 1944.Chased by German aircraft over Schweinfurt on 13 April 1944, an American B-17 was forced to turn back. Running out of fuel, it dropped its occupants at the Belgian border and, left to its own devices, crashed in a blaze of fire on the hillside of Les Crestelles. The dislocated body of Sergeant James H. Young were recovered from the wreckage and immediately taken away by the occupying forces.At the end of the war, the inhabitants of the village of Bérismenil adopted this airman by including him on the war memorial, among the many civilian victims of the locality. In 1984, on the 40th anniversary, a memorial was erected a few steps away. Since then, every year in May, the American NATO contingent based in Geilenkirchen has made a habit of coming here to celebrate Memorial Day.Further information: Flying Fortress Memorial