British Village Honors 92nd Bomb Group Crew Published Dec. 3, 2009 By Daniel Simmons 92nd Air Refueling Wing historian FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The 92nd Air Refueling Wing traces its roots to the famed 92nd Bombardment Group of World War II. Flying the B-17 bomber, the 92nd ("Fame's Favored Few") flew missions from England against Nazi-occupied Europe. The group flew most of its missions from Podington, an airfield located approximately 50 miles northwest of London. Recently, the citizens of the small village of Helmdon, England, recognized ten 92nd Bomb Group crewmembers that were killed in the area on Nov. 30, 1943, following the crash of their B-17. On that fateful day, the crew's mission was recalled after takeoff and the aircraft--nicknamed "Sharon Belle"--crashed for unknown reasons while returning to Podington. Sixty six years after the accident, Helmdon citizens unveiled a memorial shaped like an open book to honor the lives of the lost aviators. The memorial was the idea of Derek Ratledge, whose father witnessed the crash in 1943. "It is a great feeling that, after 66 years, there is a stone to record the deaths of the American servicemen. When I started this back in 2007, no one even knew for sure what year the plane had crashed. Now some of the American fam¬ilies, who did not even know each other, have been in touch for the very first time," said Ratledge.