But tragically a day later Mrs Ferguson was left a widow after her American airman husband died after the bomber he was in plummeted into a Suffolk village.

Second Lieutenant Ferguson - from Central Falls, Rhode Island - was a 25-year-old navigator of an American B-24 Liberator crew led by First Lt. Stalie Reid.

At 10pm on April 22, 1944, the crew of the plane called Miss Fire was preparing for landing in Norfolk after a bombing mission in Hamm, Germany.

The crew, which had only flown two other missions together, was returning to Rackheath, near Norwich in total darkness.

But at 1,000ft, the aircraft was attacked by a Luftwaffe fighter that had followed the crew home after the raid.

READ MORE: Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum's Jaguar plane swap

Glen Ferguson, senior class photograph, Class of 1941, Rhode Island State College (now University of Rhode Island). (Image: Supplied by Al Claiborne)

Helen Ferguson, American Red Cross, San Antonio, Texas, 1942 - 1943 (Image: Supplied........

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