55,573 is c.175% of the size of current Royal Air Force.
Percentage losses on individual raids were often higher than te - the most famous of them all Op Chastise resulted in a loss of 11 of 19 aircraft. the USAAF losses from the two raids on Schweinfurt in 1943 had nearly 20% losses. During Operation Fuller, the air operation against the 'Channel Dash', 42 of the combined force of 242 aircraft from Bomber and Coastal Commands and the Fleet Air Arm were lost.
Those who claim Bomber Command ops were war crimes are simply wrong. There was no international law to prohibiting it - there were several attempts but it was determined by 'the major powers' that such a law would be impractical given proposed things like warning the enemy of the intent to bomb a target town/city, and only bombing clearly identifiable military targets (including war materiel factories). Had there been such law, then bomber crews could have been classed as accomplices in executing a common plan and as such culpable under the Nuremburg Priciples. In framing the approach to the war crimes trials it was deemed that the actions of those planning and executing indiscriminate bombing by the Axis air forces were not liable to prosecution either. As regards the crews themselves, I suspect my late former WWII Bomber Command squadron CO friend was not the only one who was disturbed my knowing that in fulfilling his duty he was unavoidably bombing civilians but continued to obey orders..
If one compares WWII to WWI in the latter an award was of the War Medal and the Victory Medal irrespective of where the individual had served and for those serving before 31/12/1915, the 1914 or 1914-15 Star (and who didn't have excluding awards of the Africa General Service Medal or the Khedive's Sudan Medal of 1910) - plus for a very small number who had also served in the TF prior to the outbreak of war, and met its criteria, the Territorial Force War Medal.
I preface the following by saying the Bomber Command clasp was well deserved and long overdue.
Applying the clasp to the 1939-45 Star makes sense as that had to have been awarded before service could be accumulated for another Star, it was also the Star for which the BoB clasp was awarded. The stars were awarded for service in a theatre of operations not particular high level units. There was no equivalent to the 1914 Star for the WWII BEF and supporting RAF and Naval forces. The closest parallel is the 1st Army, 8th Army and North Africa 1942–43 (for 18th Arny Group) awarded to recipients of the Africa Star - only one of which could be worn (unless you were a Field Marshal or US 5-Star general
). As an aside on the issue of bomber crews and field HQ clerks getting the same award, my father told me he felt a degree of discomfort wearing his Burma Star, as he had earned it in actions at sea not in hand to hand fighting on land.
Issuing a specific Bomber Command Medal would have probably have almost certainly meant no Air Crew Europe Star - there would hence have had to be one or more other medals for those flying operationally over Europe on fighter sweeps, dropping agents, or Coastal Command crews laying (sea) mines or attacking shipping etc.
Bomber Command aircrew were certainly deserving of special recognition because of the undeserved approbrium heaped on them for decades and the obscene casualty rate. I would, however, argue there were also other groups who ran particulartly high risks deserving special clasps beyond those eligible for the Battle of Britain or North Africa ones: Chindits, Coastal Command, Submariners, Commandos who took part in raids, and Special Duty aircrew dropping SOE and other agents - I am sure there were others.