Honour '67 years too late' for Bomber Command vets

LONDON — It is a scandal that it never happened late in the reign of King George VI or early in the reign of Elizabeth II. But the persistence of Bomber Command’s British, Canadian and other Commonwealth veterans finally paid off when they were given an official “thank you” Thursday for the massive night raids they flew over Nazi-occupied Europe, which contributed so greatly to the defeat of Adolf Hitler.

As hundreds of elderly Bomber Command survivors — including 42 Canadian pilots, navigators, radio operators and gunners — watched, Queen Elizabeth unveiled a spectacularly lifelike sculpture depicting a weary seven-man bomber crew, back on terra firma after a combat sortie but anxiously scanning the skies for their returning comrades.

Moments after the monument was revealed, the only Lancaster still flying in Britain today dropped tens of thousands of poppies from its bomb bay in memory of the 55,573 flyers of Bomber Command who lost their lives during the Second World War.

The colossal eight-ton monument in bronze, which is protected by a roof constructed of aluminum recovered from Canadian Halifax bombers shot down over Germany and melted into ingots, is at the centre of a stone memorial that includes Doric columns spread out over nearly the length of a football field. It is prominently located in Green Park across from Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park Corner.

By any measure the flyers of Bomber Command, whose average age was only 22, certainly deserved such thanks when far more of them were still alive than today. To fly for Arthur “Bomber” Harris, the British commander, was unquestionably the deadliest job that Canada was given in the Second World War. More than 10,000 of the 55,000 Canadians who served in Bomber Command never returned from their missions. Of the rest, only 5,000 are still alive.

One of those Canadians, Andrew Mynarski of Winnipeg and “Moose Squadron,” was cited for his bravery during Thursday’s commemoration. Although he was himself on fire, Mynarski tried to free a crew member trapped by his gun turret after their aircraft had been attacked over France by a German night fighter.

The trapped gunner survived the crash, but Mynarski died from a hard landing after his burning parachute did not work properly. For his heroism, he was awarded a Victoria Cross.

While every other major formation associated with the allied war effort was honoured years ago, the aviators of Bomber Command were not forgotten, but intentionally ignored, because they were caught up in an early version of political correctness. More than 500,000 German civilians died during Bomber Command’s 1,000-bomber night raids, which sought to wipe out Germany’s infrastructure including factories, rail yards, ammunition depots and U-boat pens.

It could be said that, like the A-bomb attacks on Japan, what the Canadians and others from Bomber Command did almost certainly shortened the war and saved Allied and German lives, by destroying Germany’s war-fighting capability.

But politicians of the day argued that to honour Bomber Command in the years after the war was too politically charged because it was responsible for so many civilian deaths. There were fears of trouble with Germany at a time when everything possible was being done by the West to turn these bitter foes into good friends and reliable partners.

Predictably, the unveiling of the memorial — to belated but great acclaim in Britain — has not gone over well in Germany. Helma Orosz, the mayor of Dresden, where as many as 25,000 civilians died one night in a firestorm set off by a massive air raid, was “astonished” that Britain would consider honouring those who flew 390,000 combat sorties that laid waste to most German cities, according to Der Spiegel news magazine.

After Orosz took up the matter with London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, a compromise was reached whereby an inscription was included on the memorial wall commemorating those German civilians who were killed during Bomber Command attacks.

Albert Randall Wallace of Richmond Hill, Ont., who is 91, was shot down and also ended up a POW at Stalag III. He recalled in London this week regularly running a gauntlet of “thousands of search lights and anti-aircraft guns” when his Halifax bomber attacked the Ruhr Valley. Invoking the black humour common during those grim days, he said that it was such a terrifying experience that “we used to call it Happy Valley.”

Asked about Thursday’s memorial, Wallace said, “It’s wonderful, but it is 67 years too late.”

» Matthew Fisher is a Postmedia News columnist.

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition June 29, 2012