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Strike Hard, Strike Sure
by Esmerelda Weatherwax (July 2012)
To the east and south, London is surrounded by the sites of former RAF stations, some still in civilian use, a very few (eg Northolt) still part of RAF military use, that defended the city and took part in the Battle of Britain. This is well known and much admired. Go north up England’s east coast from Suffolk through Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland and you find the airfields that served Bomber Command. The controversy over whether bombing Germany so fiercely was right, whether the right targets were chosen, Dresden in particular, caused the deaths of 55,573 British and Commonwealth airmen to be neglected, in comparison to their colleagues in Fighter Command. The men of Bomber Command were never awarded a campaign medal. The men of Europe and the Commonwealth may well have been properly honoured in their home countries, as were the men of the USAF who flew from England and Scotland but, notwithstanding the memorial in Lincoln Cathedral, there was no national memorial until this weekend. more>>>