"Who Betrayed the Bomber Boys?"

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Just watched a very fine documentary on 'Yesterday' - "Who Betrayed the Bomber Boys?" narrated by Stephen Fry, dealing with the RAF Bomber offensive throughout WW2. It was on earlier in the year, but I missed it then. Glad I caught it this time around.

http://vimeo.com/42850073

http://vimeo.com/42833820

http://vimeo.com/43258160

http://vimeo.com/43054474

An "acceptable" attrition rate of 5%, and duty tours of 30 operations over the Reich. the arithmetic says it all.

50,000 plus dead, and then they were denied a campaign medal, and it's only this year that they got their own memorial.

[Lucius Apuleius]

Just watched a very fine documentary on 'Yesterday' - "Who Betrayed the Bomber Boys?" narrated by Stephen Fry, dealing with the RAF Bomber offensive throughout WW2. It was on earlier in the year, but I missed it then. Glad I caught it this time around.

http://vimeo.com/42850073

http://vimeo.com/42833820

http://vimeo.com/43258160

http://vimeo.com/43054474

An "acceptable" attrition rate of 5%, and duty tours of 30 operations over the Reich. the arithmetic says it all.

50,000 plus dead, and then they were denied a campaign medal, and it's only this year that they got their own memorial.

My Dad was in Bomber Command. Tail gunner. They were shot down on one sortie and manged to crash in good old Blighty. Everyone except him died in the crash. He was sent to Burma on transport planes after that. I have all his medals but he never did get a Bomber Command campaign medal. Shocking IMO.

[Hibs Class]

Incredibly brave men, quite scandalous how they were treated for decades following the war. The recent recognition by way of their own memorial was long overdue but it's sad that so many of those who survived the war were not around long enough to see their contribution, and the sacrifices of their comrades, belatedly recognised. I suspect that during the intervening period they will have drawn some comfort in knowing that, despite the lack of official recognition, the vast majority of the general public recognised and appreciated what they did.

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An old friend in the ministry - he's now a very old friend - was called up immediately on leaving school and trained as a navigator in Lancasters.

He flew from mid-44 up till the end of the war. By this time the Luftwaffe was pretty well beaten, and a lot of histories give the impression that the raids at that period of the war were mostly 'milk-runs'.

I can only say that that WASN'T Allan's experience. He lost a lot of buddies, and the way the crews were treated by Churchill and the government in 1945 hurt him deeply.

He was 17 in 1945; the average age of his crew was 21 and a few months.

I was rather impressed by Stephen Fry's voice-over on the film - unless I'm completely mistaken, he was really engaged with the subject, and really cared about what was done to the men. If I ever get to host a TV dinner-party, his is the first name on the top of my guest list.

[heretoday]

Incredibly brave men, quite scandalous how they were treated for decades following the war. The recent recognition by way of their own memorial was long overdue but it's sad that so many of those who survived the war were not around long enough to see their contribution, and the sacrifices of their comrades, belatedly recognised. I suspect that during the intervening period they will have drawn some comfort in knowing that, despite the lack of official recognition, the vast majority of the general public recognised and appreciated what they did.

Hear Hear! My father trained many of the pilots who were sent overseas to bomb Germany. I was never left in any doubt as I grew up as to who were the heroes of the conflict.

If we hadn't bombed the Germans into submission countless more lives would have been lost. Actually, most right-thinking people have known that all along.