TODAY (March 3) marks the 80th anniversary of the Beinn Edra disaster in Staffin which saw nine US servicemen killed.
On a misty morning on Saturday, March 3 1945 a B-17 Flying Fortress crashed at the highest summit of the Trotternish Ridge on its way from America to an RAF base in Wales.
The crew members, including the 21-year-old pilot, Lieutenant Paul Overfield Jnr, all lost their lives, despite the efforts of locals who went to their aid.
A decade ago Skye minister, Rev Rory MacLeod, a former Commando chaplain, led a commemoration service at the Columba 1400 Centre attended by around 90 people. The North Skye branch of the Royal British Legion paraded the colours and young piper Eoghainn Beaton played a lament. The commemoration included an exhibition about the disaster and a revealing talk by aviation archaeologist Dr Terence Christian, of Glasgow University, who had investigated the site.
The event was also attended by older members of the community who remembered the crash occurring and the aftermath, including the late Lachie Gillies, Stenscholl and the late John Angus MacDonald, Glasphein.
Staffin Community Trust, supported by Staffin Community Council arranged for a plaque with the names of the stricken crew to be added to the local war memorial, which looks west to Benn Edra. Every year during the Remembrance Sunday service the names of the local men from Staffin lost in conflicts are read out and so are the American air crew.
In 2020 relatives of Lt. Overfield, travelled all the way from Arizona to take part in a community commemoration involving Bun Sgoil Stafainn and the Legion to mark the 75th anniversary of the tragedy.
The pilot's cousin Doug Overfield spoke eloquently at the memorial and also visited the school to talk to Staffin pupils about the impact of the crash on his family, and that of other crew members' relatives across America, who he had been in touch with. Doug and wife Barb and friends also visited the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre in Portree where Catherine MacPhee and Ann Beaton provided a lot of detail about the rescue efforts of the north Skye community, including the masonic lodge members in Portree, and what life was like in the island during WWII.
Lt. Overfield's sister, Betty Foote, who is now in her 90s and lives in Florida, asked Doug to present a number of personal family possessions in relation to the disaster to Staffin Community Trust. It includes her brother's last letter home to his parents before his death, the tragic telegram telling them he had died and correspondence from the authorities.
SCT was grateful that the archive centre agreed to catalogue and digitise the papers. They can be accessed by the local community and our younger generation at the archive centre in the Elgin Hostel or online via this link:
https://archives.highlifehighl...
Gan cuimhneachadh
Pilot: 2/Lt Paul M. Overfield Jr
Co-Pilot: 2/Lt Leroy E. Cagle
Navigator: 2/Lt Charles K. Jeanblanc
Radio Op: Cpl Arthur W. Kopp Jr
Engineer: Cpl Harold D. Blue
Gunner: Cpl John H. Vaughan
Gunner: Cpl Harold A. Fahselt
Gunner: Cpl George S. Aldrich
Gunner: Cpl Carter D. Wilkinson
