“History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” 

David McCullough

Tragedy Over Suffolk: The Loss of the Mission Mistress

Rougham Airfield, 6 January 1945

On the cold morning of January 6, 1945, the Boeing B‑17G Mission Mistress lifted off from Rougham Airfield, just outside Bury St Edmunds. Operated by the 94th Bomb Group of the United States Army Air Forces, the aircraft and its nine‑man crew were embarking on a critical mission into Germany during the final months of the Second World War.

But only minutes after take‑off, tragedy struck.

Shortly after climbing away from Rougham’s runways, the Mission Mistress encountered serious difficulty. The aircraft went down in Home Covert, a wooded thicket that today forms part of the Moreton Hall estate on the eastern side of Bury St Edmunds. The impact was devastating. Five members of the crew lost their lives; the remaining four were pulled from the wreckage with injuries.

News of the crash sent shockwaves through the close-knit community at Rougham Airfield, where the 94th Bomb Group had been stationed since 1943. These young airmen—many of them far from home—were part of the relentless Allied air campaign aimed at disrupting German industrial capacity and hastening the end of the war. Every mission was dangerous, every take-off carried risk, and yet they flew day after day with unwavering resolve.

The loss of the Mission Mistress remains one of the most poignant wartime incidents remembered in the Rougham and Bury St Edmunds area. Though the woodland has long since been absorbed into modern housing developments, the story of that January morning survives through local history groups, wartime records, and the memories preserved by residents and relatives.

Today, as the former airfield continues to be honoured through museums and memorials, the crew of the Mission Mistress is remembered not only for the sacrifice they made, but for the role they played in shaping the freedoms enjoyed in the decades that followed.

Their service endures, and their story remains part of the living history of Suffolk.