Campaign Medal for Bomber Command?

[Tedthelad]

Double Standards + Politics Before Reason

As one of the many who served with Bomber Command I too was dismayed by the negative response to the petition.

Our 'leader' lost the plot (so what's new) in saying that no Command had individual recognition - did he not know that Fighter Command were awarded a bar that was worn on the ribbon of the 1939/45 Star?

Granted, it was only awarded to certain squadrons who flew at least one sortie between certain dates "Battle of Britain" but nevertheless it was an Individual Command Recognition.

Would not a Battle of Europe clasp have been an acceptable compromise for all CVommands operating in Europe, Battle of Japan for the far eastern Boys.

As for the France & Germany Star. Thousands of Bomber boys lost their lives after the invasion but the only recognition was this Star, which, as has been mentioned elsewhere, could also be earned by a cook serving in France in (say) March 1945 for a matter of a few weeks.

A final comment, Aircrew who qualified for the Air crew Europe and subsequently became Prisoners Of War were told on their return at the end of the war to wear the Air Crew Europe Star with a Rosette (or was it an acorn?) to represent the France and Germany Star (you cannot wear both). (I wore this until 1949)

This was later rescinded on the basis that as a POW you were no longer on active service and confronting the enemy. So, who guarded us? Who shot at us if we got out of line? Who almost starved us?

Enough said.

Ted

[Chugalug2]

Ted welcome to the thread (and to Pprune come to that). It really is good to see the likes of yourself and Hugh Spencer posting here. I am sure you have reflected over the years on why the campaign medal that you feel was your due was never awarded. Given that your generation was very much in the wrong place at the wrong time, it seems fate had a special ration of the proverbial for you guys who beat the odds and survived the Bombing Offensive against Nazi Germany. That country (less the gang who had been running it) changed from mortal foe to front line ally. The destruction you had wrought was now an embarrassment to that new relationship. Russia moved in the opposite direction, so that the cities that had been razed in 1945 to aid the Soviet advance (especially Dresden) became a special symbol of that embarrassment. Those who saw the disowning of the offensive as a way to question the need for an independent Air Force (ie principally the Army and the Navy) made hay while the sun shone, expecting a re-run of the savage cuts that followed WW1, not realising that the conflict would continue albeit as a "cold war" for some 50 years, and get very hot at times as well. The Hampstead Thinkers, who were a joke in the war, now got their revenge, influencing the petty vendettas against the likes of Harris, and more unforgivably yourselves, as you so well recount. So no change until after the Berlin Wall came down, and then more time to placate the sensibilities of the Germans as we did the "good European" thing. With the Great Leader having an eye on the European Presidency, we were perhaps hoping for too much this time, so we'll have to try again with his successor, and his if need be. To those who say it won't happen I simply say, why not? A campaign of that severity, duration and losses should have earned a campaign medal. The fact that it was conducted, in the main, by one Command is immaterial. It is the campaign and those who fought in it, not their Command, which would be commemorated. It is unacceptable that it has not yet happened, the decision needs to be reversed and soon, very soon!

[kevmusic]

Well said, Chug, as always; and I echo the sentiment as regards Ted and Hugh. Though a lifelong civvy but with an abiding interest in the history of the RAF, I have been privileged to be accepted as an associate member of my local branch of the ACA. One or two of these gents are quite computer-literate, so we may get a couple more on side!

[Hugh Spencer]

Bomber Command medal

Hi Tedthelad,
It is good to hear from other airmen from that era. I don't think there are so many of us who wish to or can cope with this new technology so we must make full use of our experience to put a point of view across as necessary. We have been through trying times these last 10 years but, I suppose, we must hope for the future. Take care.

[Hugh Spencer]

Just to revive this topic, Max Hastings has written a very good article on this in today's Daily Mail. He is a good man to have on our side. Can this topic be revived on the website? It isn't a lost cause so let's revive it. Contrary to what the PM's website stated, if the Land Army girls and the Bevin Boys can get their well- deserved recognition many years later so can Bomber Command. We have not been told the truth by the Government so let's not give them any peace until they have to admit it to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chugalug2]

Hugh, good to see that you, at least, do not suffer from the apathy and disinterest that seems to abound these days. Quite why those who post on an an aviation related site, and in particular the military aviation forum of that site do not see the fundamental injustice of not recognising the very heavy cost that was paid (almost one in two did not survive if you strip out those still in the training machine at the end) I fail to understand. 55,753 lost out of a total strength of 125,000 in order to enable Victory in Europe. Of course they didn't win the war by bombing alone. Harris's hyperbole was that of a leader inspiring his aircrew and fighting for the enormous resources that fed this weapon of mass destruction. Let us not get bogged down in the endless bickering of the effectiveness of the Allied Strategic Bombing Offensive in bringing the Nazi tyranny to its knees. Especially let us not produce that threadbare canard of Dresden. It's rather like questioning the Royal Navy's contribution to victory in the Falklands War by raising the issue of the Belgrano's course when she was sunk. The only real issue is that the Bombing Campaign was a separate and costly major effort defined by time, day one to VEday, and place, the airspace extending from the bases to deep into the territory of the Third Reich. That surely met the requirements of such Campaign Medals, vis that awarded for the Battle of the Atlantic. That it wasn't awarded would seem to have been a political decision, and though laid at the door of Churchill, following his questioning of Dresden, would now appear to have been down to a committee chaired by Attlee. Sharing the same medal that the rear echelons got after D-Day was a calculated snub by those who arbitrarily condemned the Offensive as pointless destruction for its own sake. They were and are entitled to their opinions, which they could express and enforce freely thanks to the freedoms enabled by these brave young men. Over 60 years on Let Right Be Done and give them their gong.

[Chugalug2]

No apologies for reviving this thread from the depths of the PPRuNe Towers Cellars! Once again a petition has been placed on the Downing Street site, once again we can apply pressure to get the Campaign Medal never awarded for the most dangerous campaign of all, the Bomber Offensive from the very start of WW2 to VE-day. 55573 Bomber Command crew died in this bloody conflict that paved the way to victory. We are privileged on PPRuNe to welcome the sponsor of the petition to PPRuNe. She is pilot's daughter and has posted on the Bomber Command Memorial thread on the Aviation History and Nostalgia Forum where it now resides (to little effect I would add, but that's another story):

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...296590&page=11

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ForgottenRAF/

Post your response here if you wish, I'll make a similar cross link there so that she might find this one. By the same token post there any points you wish to make pro or con a national BC Memorial. Might be nice to have the two going side by side on the military aircrew forum PPRuNe Pop? I'm afraid it hasn't prompted either history or nostalgia there!