In the icy grip of a September evening in 1943, high above the Essex countryside, First Lieutenant Paul Yannello gripped the controls of his B-17 Flying Fortress, "The Dorsal Queen." A steady-handed pilot from New York, with 11 missions under his belt, Yannello was the kind of unflappable leader who inspired his crew—young Americans like co-pilot Fredric Wilson, a Texan with a quick wit, and navigator Guilford Black, an Iowan whose meticulous charts kept them on course through Europe's deadly skies. Beside him flew "Raunchy Wolf," commanded by Lieutenant John Keeley Jr., a 25-year-old Ohioan known for his calm under fire, equally battle-hardened.

The day had begun routinely: a raid on Reims airfield in Nazi-occupied France, part of the U.S. Eighth Air Force's relentless push from RAF Great Ashfield in Suffolk. But dense clouds forced an abort, leaving the bombers heavy with undropped ordnance. As they descended through blinding fog, windshields frosting over, disaster struck. At 6,000 feet near West Horndon, the planes collided—the Queen's tail shearing off, Wolf's wing crumpling. Explosions lit the dusk; 20 airmen perished in the flames, their dreams of home extinguished. Only tail gunner John Adams parachuted to safety, a lone survivor amid the wreckage strewn across ploughed fields.

Eighty-one years later, in autumn 2024, local historian Sue Lister unearthed a poignant relic from that very soil: the remnants of a Conway Stewart fountain pen, cap intact, its 14ct gold nib gleaming defiance. Identified by our historian Steve Hull as a No. 236 model from the late 1930s—lever-fill, in elegant pink-and-black marble—this British-made treasure likely belonged to Navigator Black, the crewman most reliant on ink for plotting paths. How did it reach a Yank's pocket? Perhaps purchased in a Suffolk shop during downtime, or gifted by a local admirer, symbolising the fleeting bonds forged in wartime England.

For Conway Stewart collectors, this pen embodies our legacy: timeless craftsmanship enduring chaos, a whisper from history's margins. Lister plans to donate it, in our bespoke presentation box, to the RAF Hornchurch Heritage Centre this September, preserving its story for generations.

No. 236 Marbled Burgundy/Black (similar to the Conway Stewart that was unearthed)