Bomber Command memorial spire installed in Lincoln

[pzu]

From the BBC

Bomber Command memorial spire installed in Lincoln - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-32657465)

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

[newt]

Now that's a project worth a visit! Well done to all concerned!

Do we even have 55000 men in the RAF?:ok:

[Wander00]

Brilliant, and long overdue IMHO

[Onceapilot]

That is starting to look very worthy. Although not in Lincs, I live within 5 miles of 4 wartime Bomber Command airfields and I regularly think of the sacrifices and efforts of all who were involved.

OAP

[MPN11]

@ newt ... I think we had 200,000 when I joined, 95,000 when I left. Now it's around the 35,000 mark, I think *

Those 55,000 were incredible people, as were the lucky ones that survived. I was taught as a child by my father (RA, of all things) who explained the courage needed to drone across Germany for hours and hours, subjected to flak and night fighters and freezing cold. ISTR he had a post-War friend who had served in BC as aircrew, which probably highlighted matters.


*Too lazy to google, but you know what I mean.

[Danny42C]

Let's hope it stays up longer than the 1549 job !

[S'land]

I have always had great admiration for the members of Bomber Command, even as a child. It was strange, therefore, that a few years ago I was reading a book which gave the name of one of my mathematics teachers that I respected the most (back in the mid 1960s). It also had a photograph in which he had hardly changed between 1939 and 1966. I remember him saying that he had been in the RAF in WWII. What he did not say was that he was shot down on his second tour and became a POW.

I look forward to visiting the new memorial.

[Skeleton]

Wonderful stuff, When i think of Bomber Command though i think of the sacrifices the crews made, but also the lack of a campaign medal for them and the treatment of Bomber Harris after the war, Politics truly can be a dirty business.

[Tankertrashnav]

Skeleton - that's all in the past now, of course, with Harris on a plinth in London and Bomber Command veterans wearing their medals.

Now all we need is a Fighter Command medal

and one for Coastal Command

maybe one for the blokes on Submarines?

Trouble is when you single out one group for special treatment, no matter how deserving, someone else equally deserving will feel overlooked. Dont get me wrong, I am totally in awe of what the Bomber Command blokes went through, but I could say the same for a lot of others. That's why I always thought the idea of all the campaign stars being theatre awards was the fairest - but what do I know?

Nice memorial by the way!

[Wander00]

One of the biggest privileges of my life was to be one of the project officers for the Pathfinders 50th Anniversary at Wyton in 1992. Meet some amazing people, including my OC Ops from Watton in the sixties, Ulrich Cross, the most senior West Indian wartime aircrew, and Gp Capt Ken Batchelor, instrumental in the organisation that got the "Bomber" Harris statue. In all a most memorable weekend in astonishing company, and at least one of our young sqn ldrs absolutely enthralled by Ly Bennett, widow of AVM Bennett, AOC 8 (Pathfinder) Gp. Certainly "ordinary" people responding to extraordinary challenges. I, for one, salute them all.

[Chugalug2]

TTN:-
That's why I always thought the idea of all the campaign stars being theatre awards was the fairest - but what do I know?One hell of a lot more than me, for sure. I still feel that it was unfortunate that there wasn't a specific campaign star from the start for the Bombing Campaign, though what it would be named might have posed a problem.

I know, from you I suspect, that the Aircrew Europe Star awarded up to D-Day became known as the Bombers' Medal, but that after that it was replaced with the more generic France Germany Star. The Bombing campaign was, like the Battle of the Atlantic, waged from the start to the finish of the European War. It is a pity that, unlike the Atlantic Star, the Bomber Boys didn't have the one campaign medal from start to finish, but then what do I know (little!)?

[Courtney Mil]

TTN, I have to agree with your message, but must also applaud the careful way you posted that.