Sir David Jason meets the BBMF
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Your comment does your stock little favour. Extract from Churchill's 'The Few' speech :
"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers, who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain."
And you seem to forget the coincidental Battle of the Barges being waged at great cost by Bomber Command in an effort to deny to the enemy the wherewithal to undertake a successful invasion.
"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers, who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain."
And you seem to forget the coincidental Battle of the Barges being waged at great cost by Bomber Command in an effort to deny to the enemy the wherewithal to undertake a successful invasion.
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Yes, I did say that it was NOT two pilots and five other blokes as this programme may have intimated.
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None of which was done by a Lancaster during the BoB so you seem to have spent a great deal of time arguing against a point that you had failed to understand in the first place. My point was not that Bomber Command did not defend Britain but that they didn't do it in a Lancaster in 1940.
And, be honest with yourself, that wasn't the 'point' you were making in your original post was it?
"Why would you want to see the Lancaster? Wasn't the programme about the Battle of Britain? In fact, while I'm at it, why does the BBMF have a Lancaster at all? Surely they need to change their name."
The point you were obviously attempting to make - which I (and many others I suspect) clearly understood - was that the Battle of Britain was fought solely by Fighter Command and that the Lancaster therefore had no place in the BBMF's line-up; that's understandable as that is the way that history (and the media) portray it. However, the RAF’s mission statement for the BBMF is…
“… to maintain the priceless artefacts of our national heritage in airworthy condition in order to commemorate those who have fallen in the service of this country, to promote the modern day Air Force and to inspire the future generations.”
Consequently, as the only Nationally-owned flyable airframe representative of Bomber Command's main equipment during the whole of WWII, the Lancaster manifestly earns her place among the hallowed ranks of the BBMF and therefore within the television programme under discussion.
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I certainly attempt to make what I say clear by saying what I actually mean. You will find that your understanding of things becomes clearer if you read what is written.
