Monument Lancaster ME581

Inscription:
"TO THE
EVERLASTING MEMORY OF
[Sept noms, non classés par ordre alphabétique, avec mention du numéro de matricule et de la Force aérienne dont ils dépendaient]
WHO LOST THEIR LIVES HERE, ON
ST. GEORGE'S DAY 23-4-44 AT 1H20 A.M.
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY"

RAF 550 Squadron Lancaster ME581 was lost during the night of April 22/23 1944 when it was shot down by a night-fighter while going from for bombing mission over Dusseldorf. The aircraft crashed 5 km South-East of Spa (Liege), 10 km South of Verviers. She took off at 22h43 from North Killingholme airfield and crashed down round of two hours later. Witness declared she had yet the bombs onboard.("Spa et les Américains", George Larne).

The position:
On the road of Barissart, stop in the entertaining center of Berinzenne, leave its vehicle to the parking area and take the path-walk N ° 20. This path is 4,5 km, passes by the forest and the fens plains. It is made with gravels and interrupted with sections of duckboards. The monument is in the middle of the route. Plan equipment for the walking, the water and protect itself against the period of sunshine or the rain, according to weather conditions.

Description:
The monument consists of a square base the superior face of which is beveled in four plans, on one of which is put a bronze commemorative tablet. On the base raises itself a double symbolic wing in the front of which a cross is backed. The center of the cross contains the emblem of the 550th squadron, also bronze. In front of monument, there is a hole of 8m of diameter, filled with water: it is the impact point of the plane.

History:
Three years after the drama of Berinzenne, the parents of Phil Milburn, Officier-pilot of Lancaster LM 581-BQ-D, shot down by a German night fighter, April 23rd, 1944, receive a mail. This letter, drafted by R. G. de Lame, based in the flying club of Spa, liaison officer of the British and American strengths explains that a monument had been erected by the Belgians, in gratitude to their son and to the other members of his crew for the act of bravery which they had done by by-passing the city of Spa, with their plane, which then burned, to bring down it outside the zones of houses. By their sacrifice, they avoided an even bigger drama.

Willem Vandenameele