RAF Bomber Command and my Dad

 Last Thursday (28th June 2012) the Queen unveiled a memorial to RAF Bomber Command in London’s Green Park sixty seven years after World War 2 ended. They suffered the highest casualty rate of the British Armed Forces in the Second World War, and until last week the men of Bomber Command had been officially overlooked.

Some 125,000 airmen took part in the five-year air offensive against Germany, a campaign widely credited with helping to bring about the end of the war. But the cost was high: 55,573 members of Bomber Command were killed and another 18,000 wounded or taken prisoner. Only service in the infantry in the First World War trenches had a comparable fatality rate.

But from the moment the war ended in 1945, the men who survived saw their role ignored by the authorities. In his V-E Day speech, Winston Churchill, the prime minister, pointedly omitted to mention the contribution made by Bomber Command. This official silence followed growing disquiet about the cost in German civilian lives during the campaign. The men were subsequently denied a campaign medal or a permanent national memorial.

Statistically, there was no more dangerous occupation during the war, except for that of U-boat crewman. The chance of being killed on a typical operation was one in 20, while the standard “tour” undertaken by a crew consisted of 30 ops. Flak, accident, the prowling, pitiless night fighters – a completed tour was something to celebrate in the squadron local.

The bravery required taking to the air night after night, as one’s luck drained steadily away, was of a different quality to that required in most other branches of the Armed Forces, where combat was often a short and terrifying interlude to extended periods of inactivity. Turning up over Berlin or the Ruhr for the third or fourth time was not enough to merit an award for gallantry, no matter that it entailed the nightly mastering of fears that inevitably drove some to the wall.

My dad was drafted in 1942 and joined the Royal Air Force. He initially trained as a radio operator until a routine medical discovered he was color blind. His wasn’t a severe case in the sense that he could only see shades of grey, but he couldn’t distinguish red from brown. This was enough to remove him from the course and he was unceremoniously thrown on the scrap heap until reassigned to other duties. My dad was feeling quite sorry for himself until he realized that some veteran pilots had been sent to the same “holding station.”

Some of the pilots had flown over 30 missions and were suffering from post-traumatic stress which was not recognized in those days. Men who couldn’t take it any more were deemed to be LMF (lacking moral fiber.) they were reduced in the ranks and in some cases were sent for “corrective treatment.” Others were simply given menial jobs, and the RAF made sure everyone knew why. My dad was returned to the ranks and ended the war as a leading aircraftsman.

During the early years of the war the Germans were bombing the living daylights out of British town and cities including London, Liverpool, Plymouth, Coventry, Glasgow and my home town Swansea. In 1941 Swansea suffered three successive nights of air raids (locally known as “The Blitz” which resulted in the demolition of the town center. During one air raid my mum and dad were almost killed. My mum didn’t like the air raid shelters and insisted on remaining at home.

 They were sheltering in a doorway when the bombs began to fall and suddenly half a dozen houses on the opposite side of the  street took a direct hit and were flattened.My mum was really upset. She was wearing a bright red coat which she had purchased earlier in the day, and to her horror was now covered in a thick layer of dust.

At the behest of the War Cabinet, Churchill instructed Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, commander-in-chief of Bomber Command to undertake a methodical destruction by incendiary and high explosives of German towns and cities. The project had two objectives: retaliation and to demoralize the German people. Between 300,000 and 600,000 German civilians perished, but war is a dirty business and little is gained by conducting it half-heartedly. Furthermore the German people realized they were no longer invincible.

There was this awful denial after the war about the role of the bomber crews because of the scale of the destruction inflicted on Germany. Churchill, who had promoted bombing as the only way of hitting back at Hitler in the early stages of the war, devoted one paragraph to Bomber Command in his memoirs which is an absolute disgrace.

On a personal level, being unable to distinguish red from brown possibly saved my dad’s life and consequently I wouldn’t be here writing this blog.

Postscript:

Taking an example of 100 airmen:

  • 55 killed on operations or died as result of wounds
  • three injured (in varying levels of severity) on operations or active service
  • 12 taken prisoner of war (some injured)
  • two shot down and evaded capture
  • 27 survived a tour of operations

In total 364,514 operational sorties were flown, 1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action.

 

One Response to “RAF Bomber Command and my Dad”

  1. Alan says:

    This was good stuff. Dad went onto complete the war with the 2nd Tactical Airforce, landing at Ostend (driving his truck onto the boat over 2 planks) and ending up in Germany.

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