More than half a century after the war ended, Stephen Potts’ efforts to trace the airmen will mean their details have been accurately recorded and preserved for the first time.

The crew of the B17 ‘flying fortress’ from the 92nd bombardment group of the 407th Bomb Squadron were killed when their plane crashed around 400 yards west of the village green on November 13, 1943.

Growing up in the village, Mr Potts had heard many stories about the crash, and visited the field where it hit the ground, and where the scars from the impact could still be seen in the 1960s.

His cousin Mark Hampson had written to the US Air Force to obtain the details of the crew for a plaque to be put on Northend war memorial.

But Mr Potts’ research led to him getting in touch with relatives of one of the airmen and creating the first full record of the crash.

Mr Potts, now an MOD policeman living in Berkshire, said: “As a boy growing up we could visit the crash site and see the impact the plane made. That affects you.

“I wanted to do something for the village and I pass the plaque every time I visit the village.”

The popular version of the story was that the bomber had been shot up on a bombing mission and was trying to reach RAF Gaydon two miles away. But when Mr Potts obtained the crash report he learned the plane was flying from RAF Poddington on a mission to Bremen when ice caused its engines to fail as it climbed through cloud.

The bomber went into a sideward spin and broke up before it hit the ground, scattering debris - including unexploded bombs - over a quarter of a mile.

But with some of the military records destroyed by a fire in the 1970s and errors possibly caused by there being four B17 crashes on the same day, Mr Potts had to search the US National Records database online.

He also contacted state record offices and searched for family information on the internet.

This led to a relative of Staff Sgt Donald Yoder - wrongly listed as Yader in the original listing - contacting his surviving brother Robert Yoder.

It emerged the young airman had only been in England for three weeks before the crash and that his brother had had to open the letter and break the news to his father.