TODAY THE QUEEN WILL unveil a monument to Bomber Command and the men who flew the missions over Germany; 53,573 of whose members were killed; the highest rate of attrition suffered by any of the armed services during the Second World War.
The average age of the crews that flew the Lancaster bombers were in the low twenties. They were crammed into, what for so many of them proved to be a flying coffin. If the plane was hit escape was possible but rare. Out of a total of 125,000 men who flew with Bomber Command, only 10,000 were taken prisoner. Death, if you were lucky, would be quick, but only if the plane exploded and vaporised the crew within mere tenths of a second.
If, however, a Lancaster was fatally wounded and sent tumbling to earth in one piece but leaving a vapour trail from where it was hit; then the crew had some little time to make their escape via their parachutes. But imagine what this must have been like for the crew struggling within such cramped conditions trying to head for the exit before their plane hit the ground.
Whether you were on the high seas, in the air, or on the land fighting in Europe, Burma or North Africa: there was no easy option in the Second World War. All three services, as well as the merchant service, all paid a heavy price. But those who flew in the raids over Germany were, until tomorrow, nearly 70 years after the war’s end, treated almost with shame by politicians from Churchill onwards.
It says something about the way these men who flew with Bomber Command were treated, that it has taken this long to acknowledge the service they did to the nation with a monument dedicated to their achievements. But even then, it has been completed largely through private subscription. It was left to the likes of Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees to start the ball rolling. Sadly Mr Gibb died last month of cancer before he could see his work accomplished.
The government (as well as politicians from all other parties) did nothing to support this monument financially. To them it is an embarrassment. There was no money forthcoming even to cover the cost of today’s unveiling which amounts to £700,000. While Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are paying for their ex-servicemen to attend the unveiling; this government could not even meet the cost of a train fair for British veterans wishing to attend in London.
As peerages were handed out after the war to key commanders; Air Marshall Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, who set in motion the bombing raids that flattened cities, particularly Dresden, received not such honour. He became an anathema to the establishment and as such was ill-rewarded.
THE BOMBING OF DRESDEN cost many lives. The tally of such deaths has fluctuated. At the high end 250, 000 were killed, while at the low end 50,000 perished. However, the Germans themselves have claimed that between 100,000 -150,000 of their citizens perished when Dresden was bombed.
Bombing on such a scale is truly awful; but it was the only means left available to the British at that time in war when we could hit back at Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany had introduced the concept of total war. She introduced the Blitzkrieg, that frightening assault from both air and land on a weaker enemy. The awful whistling Stukar dive bomber, which even the Germans acknowledged was a weapon of terror, was used to dive on Czechoslovakia and Poland; and they cared little where the bombs dropped – civilians were of little consequence to the Fuehrer.
If the Germans had had a long range heavy bomber, like the Lancaster or the American Flying Fortress; they would have exacted the same punishment on us that we were able to exact from them. The Germans introduced the concept of total war which meant the targeting of civilians. When they raided Spain, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland and France; they cared little for the innocent people who clung together in fear of their assault.
The night when Dresden was bombed, a Jew forced into labour by the Nazis was working in an armaments factory on the outskirts of the city. He was just one of many thousands that were inducted into the slavery of Nazi Germany, before he was rendered no longer serviceable to the state and sent to one of the many concentration camps that littered Nazi occupied Europe.
On this particular night; this particular Jew witnessed the Dresden bombings and jumped up and down in celebration of the bombers who carried out the raid. While Churchill, as well as other politicians sought, after the war, to separate themselves from such actions; this particular Jew had little reservation about what had happened.
WHEN WE ARE FORCED INTO a war to defend ourselves then we must use every method available to us in order to secure our civilisation. Nazi Germany sought a 1,000 year Reich. Hitler saw himself as the architect of a greater Germania – a title which, should not be lost today on those who seek a United States of Europe.
The actions taken by Bomber Command equalised what the Nazis had done to Czechoslovakia, Poland, Holland, France, and, before the war, what they did in Spain at Guernica, where the screaming terror of bombing was captured by Picasso in his portrait of the same name.
The monument to Bomber Command should be celebrated. Like every other service, Bomber Command under the general-ship of Sir Arthur Harris did everything necessary to bring a conclusion to the war.
The air raids on Germany bared comparison with the pounding of a city fortress in the 16th century with the use of artillery. We had to throw everything we had at the Nazis, and the 1,000 bomber raids brought home to them that they were not, eugenically, some kind of master race that Hitler believed them to be.
Our bombing raids over Germany were the necessity of victory. A victory that would put paid to the European conflict that, in total, caused the lives of some 40 million people: such numbers that the allied bombings never ever inflicted, but are nevertheless being held accountable for.
Our bombers did what was needed to help win victory over Nazi Germany. They were part of the war effort, and as such deserved recognition, just as those who flew in the Battle of Britain did. But it appears that our politicians turned their civilised noses up at such a recognition for Bomber Command’s achievements, believing the subject to be indelicate and, no doubt, shameful.
This monument was needed, no only as a tribute to the courage of those bomber crews, but also as a permanent reminder to future generations. I believe that in another 30 years those bombing raids will be seen as war crimes and Arthur Harris a war criminal. Without public subscription, this monument would never have been built. The state, in the guise of the modern political class, would sooner have allowed this episode in our country’s history to have been apologised for rather than have a monument erected to it.
Such is our modern enervated sense of our country’s history – especially among our children, that I doubt that those young lives lost over Germany were worth the sacrifice after all.
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