Just watching dam busters bomber Harris do you know he was leading the heroes and he was only 24 hes just a kid what a gang of bloody heroes they were as im sure many were i take my hat of to you
Matey....listened to the Radio 2 commemoration last night....absolutely fantastic.....like you say just forget how young these chaps were......outstanding
Had the privilege of sitting in the very same one back in my youth, and the spitfire and the hurricane. Long story how I did it but even as an 11 year old I can still rememeber the way the hairs picked up on the back of my neck.
Saw the Lancaster fly into RAF scampton Wednesday night in preparation, could have literally thrown a stone at it from the a46. So gutted they did the fly by at derwent water on a Thursday, only live 20 minutes away and would have loved to have seen it.
Almost half of bomber command was lost during the war. A 50% casualty rate would be intolerable in any other fighting force even during the ludicrous command decisions of the First World War. And many of them volunteered for two or three tours of duty. Every generation turns out young people willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. More often than not as an enforcement of their government's foreign policy, but these men, in this war, really were laying down their lives for freedom, in the most real and visceral sense. Per Ardua ad Astra.
Well said Ken .....68 years to get a memorial .......... Bomber Command never got a mention in Churchills post war speech. No campaign medal for these boys WHAT A FUCKING DISGRACE!!............When this country was on its KNEES and the only way to fight back was to send sorties over Germany .....The bravest of the brave! Yeah I go up to Ladybower/Derwent most years fills me with pride see the museum and pause for a minute Yes ive got family reasons for going but everyone should be grateful for the ultimate sacrifices made by Bomber Command.
I was listening to R2 too. I really couldn't believe Guy Gisbon was only 24 in 43 at the time of the Dam Buster raids. He was killed in 1944 at the controls of a Mosquito.
There's a fair bit of controversy about the manner of his crash too. The powers that be didn't really want him flying operationally and there is discussion on exactly how well checked out he was on the Mosquito, notoriously renowned for its more complicated than usual fuel transfer system. His well documented large ego and equally noted impatience caused him to refuse the normal conversion course to the Mossie so he flew it completely by the seat of his pants. His navigator on the night had never flown them before. As his aircraft was never claimed as a kill, theories to his demise include that he, or more likely, his navigator, incorrectly shut off the fuel, transferring it between tanks, a faulty fuel gauge with the same result, even a claim by a Lancaster gunner who 'claimed' to have shot him down by accident. Whatever happened, the Germans never claimed the kill, considering his potential status as a trophy, if they had any doubt they were responsible they would surely have exploited the fact.
