On 8 February 1944, an American B-17 bomber crashed at Macquenoise, not far from Momignies. This space retraces the flight, the crash, and what is known of the fate of its crew — drawing on American military archives and local memory.
Like thousands of Allied crews, the Susan Ruth’s crew flew over a Europe bristling with anti-aircraft defences. Every sortie was a gamble: the aircraft had to reach its target, then make it back — neither of which was guaranteed in 1944. That day, the aircraft never reached its base. It crashed near Macquenoise, before the eyes of residents who would never forget the scene.
What remains of a crew after such a crash? Names on a list, letters to families across the Atlantic, and sometimes — when luck and local help come together — survivors. The museum presents what American archives and local testimonies allow us to piece together about the men of the Susan Ruth, without filling in the gaps that still remain.