THE JIG’S UP

The simple memorial of slate and part

of a propeller was relocated

from the mountainous North Stack, where the plane crashed,

a mile to sea level in the Holyhead

Breakwater Country Park. The US

B24 Liberator bomber

was based at Valley ten miles away.

Returning from a radar jamming raid

over Northern France in very bad weather

the B24 overflew and, making

a re-approaching circuit, ran out of fuel.

Believing the aircraft was over land

the pilot ordered the eight non-commissioned

crew members to bail out. At the last minute

he and the co-pilot jumped to safety.

The plane hit the North Stack cliffs and burned.

Later it was learned the eight had drowned.

In the country park’s visitors’ centre

there is a colour photo of the crew:

smiling, modest young men in front of the nose

of The Jig’s Up – behind them its bullish,

innocent, fateful name.