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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Dam Busters dog's racial slur gravestone altered by RAF | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Dog’s name was on headstone at base of 617 Squadron that carried out famous WW2 raid | Dog’s name was on headstone at base of 617 Squadron that carried out famous WW2 raid |
| The gravestone of the dog who appeared in the second world war film The Dam Busters – whose name is a racial slur – has been altered by the RAF. | The gravestone of the dog who appeared in the second world war film The Dam Busters – whose name is a racial slur – has been altered by the RAF. |
| The 617 Squadron, which was originally based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, undertook a low-level night attack on German dams in 1943, probably the most famous raid in the history of the force. | |
| Wing Cdr Guy Gibson used his dog’s name as a codeword to say the dam had been breached, with the labrador retriever dying on the same night as the raid. | |
| The headstone, at Scampton, was altered recently, while film versions of the The Dam Busters have either edited out the name or renamed him Trigger. | The headstone, at Scampton, was altered recently, while film versions of the The Dam Busters have either edited out the name or renamed him Trigger. |
| Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative former minister whose constituency includes Scampton, wrote to the RAF station commander saying: “Undoubtedly we are both more sensitive and more sensible today when it comes to the delicateness of racialist and derogatory terminology which had been used with unfortunate informality in the past. | Sir Edward Leigh, a Conservative former minister whose constituency includes Scampton, wrote to the RAF station commander saying: “Undoubtedly we are both more sensitive and more sensible today when it comes to the delicateness of racialist and derogatory terminology which had been used with unfortunate informality in the past. |
| “It is perfectly understandable that this is a tricky matter to which there are no simple or easy solutions. I am, however, very fearful of our ability today to erase or rewrite history. | |
| “The past needs to be explained, taught about, and learned from – not rewritten. Wing Cdr Gibson’s dog was much loved by the Dambusters and was killed while he was on a raid risking his life to defend our country.” | “The past needs to be explained, taught about, and learned from – not rewritten. Wing Cdr Gibson’s dog was much loved by the Dambusters and was killed while he was on a raid risking his life to defend our country.” |