On 19 July 1944 Champage Girl ~ a Bassingbourn 91st BG B17 - crashed into the Swiss Alps; she was knocked out of the sky by another B-17 on route to a mission to Lechfeld in Germany.

On 25 July 2010, some 66 years and 6 days after that mountain-top crash, parts of the Champagne Girl made their final mission back to England and home to Bassingbourn.

Stefan Naef - an enthusiast and reseacher of the B-17 Bomber 42-107075 Champagne Girl, based in Switzerland - contacted the Tower in early July, informing us of his forthcoming trip to the UK and of his wonderful donation of wreckage pieces of the aircraft, which include pieces of bullet proof glass from the aircraft windscreen, bullet casings found in the fuselage of the wreckage and other metal pieces of the aircraft infrastructure.

The photograph top right shows the tail of the Champagne Girl taken at her dispersal area at Bassingbourn in 1944. The US airmen on the plane, has to date not been identified. The Museum would love to hear from anyone who may know who this airman is.

Our heartfelt thanks to Stefan for donating parts of his collection to the Tower Museum at Bassingbourn - they are in good hands.

The photograph bottom right show's Stefan and Fabio Naef handing over pieces of the wreckage to the Museum's Director and Curator Chris Murphy, and Museum President Tom Gill with the Tower in the background