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| Queen unveils memorial to Bomber Command | Queen unveils memorial to Bomber Command |
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| The day after she made one symbolic gesture – a handshake with the former IRA leader Martin McGuinness – the Queen was applying balm to another historic wound. | The day after she made one symbolic gesture – a handshake with the former IRA leader Martin McGuinness – the Queen was applying balm to another historic wound. |
| Alongside other senior members of the royal family, she attended the dedication of a memorial in Portland stone to Bomber Command and the unveiling of the 9-foot-high bronze sculpture at its heart – seven airmen gazing at a horizon from which their comrades would never return. | Alongside other senior members of the royal family, she attended the dedication of a memorial in Portland stone to Bomber Command and the unveiling of the 9-foot-high bronze sculpture at its heart – seven airmen gazing at a horizon from which their comrades would never return. |
| A decade ago, the ceremony in London's Green Park might have seemed just as unthinkable as rapprochement with Sinn Féin. | A decade ago, the ceremony in London's Green Park might have seemed just as unthinkable as rapprochement with Sinn Féin. |
| The courage of the then young men who believed they were striking at the heart of the German war machine during the second world war was tarnished by post-war angst about the ethics of bombing civilians. Half a million died in the raids that old men remembered on Thursday. | The courage of the then young men who believed they were striking at the heart of the German war machine during the second world war was tarnished by post-war angst about the ethics of bombing civilians. Half a million died in the raids that old men remembered on Thursday. |
| Unlike the heralded famous "Few" whose fighters defended Britain in 1940, those who went by day and mostly night to destroy enemy cities have felt years of hurt. At last they have a permanent memorial, though the £6m needed for it came from public donations and private sponsors Lord Ashcroft, John Caudwell and Richard Desmond rather than the state. Future upkeep will cost another £1.5m for which the RAF Benevolent Fund is seeking further public donations. The German city of Dresden, where 25,000 civilians died in bombing raids, initially objected to the memorial. But this was overcome by the placing of an inscription commemorating all the lives lost in the bombings of 1939-45. | Unlike the heralded famous "Few" whose fighters defended Britain in 1940, those who went by day and mostly night to destroy enemy cities have felt years of hurt. At last they have a permanent memorial, though the £6m needed for it came from public donations and private sponsors Lord Ashcroft, John Caudwell and Richard Desmond rather than the state. Future upkeep will cost another £1.5m for which the RAF Benevolent Fund is seeking further public donations. The German city of Dresden, where 25,000 civilians died in bombing raids, initially objected to the memorial. But this was overcome by the placing of an inscription commemorating all the lives lost in the bombings of 1939-45. |
| The stately arrival of the last flying Lancaster bomber, which dropped poppy petals during the dedication service, and created a shimmering, shifting red cloud against an unusually blue sky, was greeted by spontaneous applause. Seconds earlier, five Tornados, the results of a military partnership between Britain and its former enemies Germany and Italy, planes typical of more recent conflicts – the Gulf, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya – had streaked over the ceremony. | The stately arrival of the last flying Lancaster bomber, which dropped poppy petals during the dedication service, and created a shimmering, shifting red cloud against an unusually blue sky, was greeted by spontaneous applause. Seconds earlier, five Tornados, the results of a military partnership between Britain and its former enemies Germany and Italy, planes typical of more recent conflicts – the Gulf, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya – had streaked over the ceremony. |
| Survivors of the 125,000 who served in Bomber Command during the war (55,573 died in action) remembered those who never made it back from missions to the Ruhr valley, Berlin, Hamburg and other targets. | Survivors of the 125,000 who served in Bomber Command during the war (55,573 died in action) remembered those who never made it back from missions to the Ruhr valley, Berlin, Hamburg and other targets. |
| They thought too of those who had been on the end of their deadly weapons. Just a few years after Rusty Waughman piloted a Lancaster bomber equipped with the "Airborne Cigar" to jam German air defence communications over Berlin, he flew Dakotas in the airlift taking supplies to the city then blockaded by the Soviet Union. "I have still got very good German friends," said Waughman, 89, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire. "There was no animosity at all." | They thought too of those who had been on the end of their deadly weapons. Just a few years after Rusty Waughman piloted a Lancaster bomber equipped with the "Airborne Cigar" to jam German air defence communications over Berlin, he flew Dakotas in the airlift taking supplies to the city then blockaded by the Soviet Union. "I have still got very good German friends," said Waughman, 89, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire. "There was no animosity at all." |
| On a later more peaceful visit to the German capital in the early 1990s he saw a destroyed church kept as a memorial to 360 children who died in a bombing raid. "You kind of realise 'I may have done that'. It struck home and I still think about it." A decade later on a trip to Cologne cathedral, a rare survivor in a city reduced to rubble in WW2, Waughman met a German woman and a young boy. She said: "Think of Coventry, Plymouth, London, we did the same thing there." | On a later more peaceful visit to the German capital in the early 1990s he saw a destroyed church kept as a memorial to 360 children who died in a bombing raid. "You kind of realise 'I may have done that'. It struck home and I still think about it." A decade later on a trip to Cologne cathedral, a rare survivor in a city reduced to rubble in WW2, Waughman met a German woman and a young boy. She said: "Think of Coventry, Plymouth, London, we did the same thing there." |
| His squadron had planes on every raid because of its special equipment. "Our attrition rate was the highest of any part of the airforce. On the Nuremberg raid of 29-30 March 1944 we sent 26 aircraft and lost seven. On that night (taking in all bombers), we lost something like 540 air crew. Fighter command lost 507 during the Battle of Britain." | His squadron had planes on every raid because of its special equipment. "Our attrition rate was the highest of any part of the airforce. On the Nuremberg raid of 29-30 March 1944 we sent 26 aircraft and lost seven. On that night (taking in all bombers), we lost something like 540 air crew. Fighter command lost 507 during the Battle of Britain." |
| He was later decorated. "At the end of a tour, nearly all the skippers got recognition but none of the crew did which seemed a shame. You were doing the same job." He remembered his rear gunner. "One night his electrically-heated suit had failed. [When we landed] he had spittle coming out of his oxygen mask. The icicle was three feet long. His face was frostbound. Temperatures were down below -40C. He had never said a thing. He was in hospital for two or three weeks and marked for life." | He was later decorated. "At the end of a tour, nearly all the skippers got recognition but none of the crew did which seemed a shame. You were doing the same job." He remembered his rear gunner. "One night his electrically-heated suit had failed. [When we landed] he had spittle coming out of his oxygen mask. The icicle was three feet long. His face was frostbound. Temperatures were down below -40C. He had never said a thing. He was in hospital for two or three weeks and marked for life." |
| Waughman's bomb-aimer Norman Westby, 89, who lives in Andorra, said: "My first tour, with Rusty, we were the only crew to make 30 trips in the squadron. Life expectancy was five trips during the Battle of Berlin." On one raid over Germany, the plane was hit from below by another Lancaster, damaging the starboard wing, fuselage and tail. "I was lying in the prone position. There was a huge kick and it hit just nine inches behind my ankles. " The other plane went down; theirs flew on to hit a target before returning home. | Waughman's bomb-aimer Norman Westby, 89, who lives in Andorra, said: "My first tour, with Rusty, we were the only crew to make 30 trips in the squadron. Life expectancy was five trips during the Battle of Berlin." On one raid over Germany, the plane was hit from below by another Lancaster, damaging the starboard wing, fuselage and tail. "I was lying in the prone position. There was a huge kick and it hit just nine inches behind my ankles. " The other plane went down; theirs flew on to hit a target before returning home. |
| Sam Brookes, 87, from Paddock Wood, Kent, who operated the top secret Airborne Cigar on another Lancaster, remembered his friend Keith Gosling, from Bradford, "a chap I had met on the day I joined . We went through all our training together as wireless operators. We went to the squadron. A month later, he was dead. He was my best mate. I shed a tear for him every 11 November." | Sam Brookes, 87, from Paddock Wood, Kent, who operated the top secret Airborne Cigar on another Lancaster, remembered his friend Keith Gosling, from Bradford, "a chap I had met on the day I joined . We went through all our training together as wireless operators. We went to the squadron. A month later, he was dead. He was my best mate. I shed a tear for him every 11 November." |
| Reg Davey, a navigator, remembered a night where his plane was caught in searchlights and hit by ground fire. "We got blasted to pieces. The windscreen bashed in. I lent the pilot my goggles from my navigation bag but all my maps and charts were blown away. I never got the goggles back." | Reg Davey, a navigator, remembered a night where his plane was caught in searchlights and hit by ground fire. "We got blasted to pieces. The windscreen bashed in. I lent the pilot my goggles from my navigation bag but all my maps and charts were blown away. I never got the goggles back." |
| The stricken plane was headed west. "We landed with a burst tyre and crashed it in a heap." He adopted a protective mindset regarding those who did not return from missions. "You thought: 'That's OK, they're prisoners of war.' They weren't. They were blown to pieces." | The stricken plane was headed west. "We landed with a burst tyre and crashed it in a heap." He adopted a protective mindset regarding those who did not return from missions. "You thought: 'That's OK, they're prisoners of war.' They weren't. They were blown to pieces." |
| The memorial, said Davey, 89, a Londoner, was "very late" but the day was overwhelming. "We didn't think much of Bomber Harris [Arthur Harris, head of Bombing Command from February 1942]. We called him Chopper Harris because he sent us out to get the chop. But it was only a job he was told to do by Churchill – wipe out German industry – and, in the end, I think we did it. In the process we killed a lot of Germans. But then I was in London for the Blitz." | The memorial, said Davey, 89, a Londoner, was "very late" but the day was overwhelming. "We didn't think much of Bomber Harris [Arthur Harris, head of Bombing Command from February 1942]. We called him Chopper Harris because he sent us out to get the chop. But it was only a job he was told to do by Churchill – wipe out German industry – and, in the end, I think we did it. In the process we killed a lot of Germans. But then I was in London for the Blitz." |
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