Bomber Command Campaign Medal
I have recently read the splendid book "Lancaster: the Second World War's Greatest Bomber", by Leo McKinstry. In it, he points out that Sir Arthur Harris's greatest grievance with the refusal to award the members of Bomber Command their own campaign medal was not mainly about the aircrew, who could qualify for the Aircrew Europe Star....but for the ground crew, whose dedication to the preparation of the aeroplanes was rewarded only with the Defence Medal. "Few people appreciate the terrible miseries and discomforts and the tremendous hours of work under which the ground personnel of Bomber Command on the airfields have laboured for nearly six years and through six winters, two of which have been notoriously bitter" he told Sir Archibald Sinclair on 1st July 1945. As to the award of the Defence Medal, he said that the idea of a "defence" medal was a contravention of the very purpose of Bomber Command.... "The only task which we have not been asked to perform, other than negatively, is that of "defence.""
Unable to acheive his desire to obtain a campaign medal for his men, he refused all honours and awards offered to him, other than the Defence Medal for which all his ground based personnel qualified. It's another example of political decisions being made on other grounds.