Sarratt remembers ‘forgotten’ air crew member killed in World War Two

Sarratt villagers paused in their homes last Wednesday to reflect on two US warplanes that collided during a training flight, killing all six American service personnel aboard the aircraft.

One casualty was Emma Jane ‘Windy’ Windham, a 24-year-old pioneer who became a pin-up of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) in the US Air Force.

Killed six weeks before the end of the war, a historian said her death was largely “brushed under the carpet” and forgotten...until now.

Gregory Edmund, of the Sarratt Local History Society, said Emma Jane’s life should be remembered as an important figure in women’s history.

The 24-year-old historian said: “Every death is a tragedy in war, but this particular six have been forgotten.

“It was brushed under the carpet because it was six weeks before the end of the war.

“While it was a training flight, they were still figures that protected us and fought for us in the war.

“Many relatives of these six had no idea where the deaths actually happened because of a spelling error in many documents and books said it happened not in Bovingdon, in Hertfordshire, but in Bovington, which is in Dorset.

“You have this sole female casualty from the American air force that has not been talked about. It’s never been appreciated fully what actually happened that day.”

Mr Edmund said as many in the village were of the fire service had formed the opinion that a woman had been on board, there was no way the victims of the crash were military personnel.

He said: “The people in the village had first thought it had been a misdemeanour, because why else would a woman be on a plane?

“The local rumour said these men were joyriding to impress her, they had an accident and it was forgotten about.

“But it was the furthest thing from the truth. She didn’t need to be impressed because she had done it all before.”

Believed to have started flying with her brothers from the age of 12, and trained as a civilian pilot, Emma Jane was quickly moved through the ranks, earned her silver wings and posted as an engineer in RAF Bovingdon in 1944.

Denied the opportunity for frontline military service, she quipped: “I didn’t travel all this way to fly a desk!”

Mr Edmund said: “She had a real can-do spirit about her. A lot of her letters are quite remarkable.

“She was once stopped by military police as she was wearing silver wings, and from their point of view it was a distinction that a woman should not have had.

“She became a pin-up girl for servicewoman because of her good looks, but was also able to shrewdly play the tabloids quite brilliantly.

“Emma Jane was probably very inspired by Amelia Earhart, and could have easily become as influential a figure.”

She was not the only person of interest to die in the crash.

Mr Edmund said he has very good reason to believe that James Shelton was a black man who pretended to be white.

He said: “The only James Shelton I can find was the adopted son of an African American, a man who had an influential role in building parts of Phoenix, Arizona.

“Because of segregation, it is very unlikely his adopted son was anything other than black or mixed race.

“There was no concept of a black man adopting a white child during the Depression. In the census, it says James Shelton was black. But when he enlisted in the army, it says he’s white.

“If it is him, he deliberately lied for an obvious reason.

“Black servicemen and women were heavily discriminated against and it’s very possible this chap slipped through.”

The original plan to pay tribute to the six who died was a church service with local and US dignitaries attending, but this was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Edmund added: “There’s hope in the future that we can plan a rearranged memorial service in the future, with hopefully also relatives in attendance.

“We also hope to put in place a permanent memorial so these men and women can be remembered forever.”