Bomber Command Memorial

Another day off, and once again I took advantage of the time to visit another Aviation site - this time the Bomber Command Memorial.

I was fortunate enough to do a guided tour where I was the only person doing the tour, so I had the guide to myself and he was very informative. I found the experience deeply moving. The path up to the memorial is lined with stones with inscriptions and memorials - there's an example of one shown in the image - and the ages of those who were killed is just heart breaking.

The highest death rate for bomber command crews was for those aged 21 years old. And the casualty numbers were staggering - I'd heard them before, but when you saw all those rust coloured walls with all the names - it was overwhelming.

It's interesting to note that during the Battle of Britain, the RAF lost 449 fighter pilots.

For the entire duration of the war, Bomber Command lost 55,573 killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4 per cent death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war.

It's the 80th anniversary of the Dambusters Raid which took place on the 16th of May 1943.

The figures you see are the crews of Lancaster ED887AJA which was one of the Lancasters involved in the Dam Buster raids. Sadly, they were all killed when hit by ack-ack fire north of IJmuiden, just as they were about to coast out on their way back.

The two figures in the background are Barnes Wallis who invented the bouncing bomb used on the raids, and Guy Gibson, the Squadron Leader of 617 Squadron which carried out the raids.

The other images are just poignant reminders of the sacrifices made by so many young men throughout the war.

A profoundly moving experience.