In a spot of surpassing peace and beauty on a lonely hillside in the Ashdown Forest in Sussex we often pause for a while at The Airman’s Grave. It is not really a grave but a memorial to brave young men who gave their tomorrows for our today.
In July 1941 a RAF Wellington bomber was returning from a raid over Germany. In bad weather and with only one engine working it crashed onto a hill in the Ashdown Forest, killing the six crew members. A little while after the crash the mother of Sgt Vic Sutton, the 2nd pilot, came to live in the nearby village of Nutley and had a simple wooden cross placed near the site of the crash in memory of her son and his five comrades.
Over the years the Forest Rangers have looked after the memorial, replacing the original cross with one of stone, planting a small garden and finally building a wall to keep the forest sheep away from the plants.
Each year in November, on Remembrance Sunday, hundreds of people gather on the sloping hillside to honour the memory of these men and all others who gave their lives and futures so that we may live free from being terrorised by evil men who wish us harm.
When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today
