This is a photo of my late father-in-law, who was the pilot of a Wellington bomber in WW11. Like most of the survivors of Bomber Command, he felt betrayed by his country after the war in which he flew a complete tour of 30 operations and then a further 20 over Germany. Only 35% of crews survived their first tour and they were taken out of active service after an additional 20 ops and sent to train new pilots. 'Nick' spent the rest of the war years training pilots in India.
He didn't choose to be a bomber pilot, he was selected and sent to Canada for training. Had he been selected to fly Spitfires, he would have been regarded as a hero but those who served in Bomber Command never had their contribution to the war effort acknowledged by the government. The sense of shame and guilt at the bombing of German cities was shifted from the government onto the men who risked their lives every night to bring the war to an end.
It has taken 70 years of effort by the Bomber Command Association to finally have a memorial erected to honour the 55,000 crew members who gave their lives. The memorial will be unveiled by the Queen in Hyde Park tomorrow.
The great and the good will attend the ceremony along with 6,500 veterans, widows and relatives who raised the money for the memorial. We will not be attending but will go to pay our respects at a later date. The controversy, however, continues.
The MOD has reneged on its promise to contribute towards the cost of the ceremony, leaving the Bomber Command Association to face the £350,000 deficit; they risk losing their homes to pay the bill. I'm glad that my father-in-law didn't live to see the day that insult was added to injury!
