Plane shootdown over Syke

During World War II, on the 29 November 1943, a United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" informally known as the Rikki Tikki Tavi was shot down over Syke in what is now Lower Saxony.
Crash
The aircraft was a of the 96th Bombardment Group, which was based at the Snetterton Heath Air Base in East Anglia. It was nicknamed after The Jungle Book character "Rikki Tikki Tavi" by its crew.
In total eight crew died; the navigator and rear machine gunner survived, despite the rear machine gunner not deploying a parachute.
Memorial
On 29 November 2018, on the 75th anniversary of the plane crash, around 25 relatives of four crew members travelled from the United States and to visit Friedeholz near Syke, where the surviving crew members landed. They viewed a memorial plaque that has been erected in the forest.
In popular culture
The event was included in 2018 book by German author Ulf Kaack<ref name":5" /> and in a later book Tailspin by John Armbruster.<ref name":4" />
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