On the north side of the road.

A headstone-style slab marker, engraved with a cross and wreath, bearing the commemoration message in English in incised lettering. The stone memorial is surrounded by wooden fences with stone pebbles filling the ground spaces within. The memorial was set up in remembrance of two US NAF aircrew of 68 Squadron RAF Coltishall who lost their lives near this spot in 1944. On November 14th, 1944 while returning to base after patrolling the skies over the North Sea, the crew of Mosquito NFX VII - HK289 witnessed the air-launch of a V1 flying bomb. While in pursuit and attempting to shoot down the V1 they were themselves accidentally shot down by the friendly fire, probably by the Heavy Anti-Aircraft emplacement at Lound two miles distant from where they crashed at Somerleyton. Pilot, Lieutenant Joseph Francis “Joe” Black, Jr. and Navigator, Lieutenant Thomas Newkirk Aiken were both killed instantly.

Source of information and images: www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk, www.geograph.org.uk

NEAR THIS PLACE

LT J.BLACK U.S. N.A.F. PILOT

AND

LT T. AIKEN U.S. N.A.F. NAV

GAVE THEIR LIVES IN DEFENCE

OF THIS COUNTRY

RETURNING FROM OPERATIONAL

DUTIES ON NOV 14 1944

GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN

THAN THIS.

THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS

LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.