Posted on 06/28/2012 7:33:22 PM PDT by nuconvert
They have waited almost 70 years but thousands of war veterans and their relatives finally watched today as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh unveiled a lasting legacy to the sacrifice made by tens of thousands of airmen who died in the Second World War.
More than 5,000 veterans and veterans' family members from all over the world travelled to the capital for the poignant ceremony to mark the opening of the Bomber Command Memorial, with Air Commodore Malcolm White, chairman of Bomber Command Association vowing: 'We will remember them'.
Situated in the heart of London, a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace, the memorial in the north west corner of Green Park remembers the bravery of the 55,573 RAF crew who lost their lives in the conflict.
Speaking at a special dedication ceremony, Chief of the Air Staff Sir Stephen Dalton told crowds the 'service and raw courage' of those who died had been recognised.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I will quote Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy(p.132)
"At the end of January 1945 Albert Speer and his ministerial colleagues met in Berlin to sum up what bombing had done to production schedules for 1944. They found that Germany had produced 35 percent fewer tanks than planned, 31 percent fewer aircraft and 42 percent fewer lorries as a result of bombing. The denial of these huge resources to German forces in 1944 fatally weakened their response to bombing and invasion and eased the path of Allied armies."
The men of RAF Bomber Command are heroes who helped free Europe from NAZI tyranny.
ping
Congrats to these British men whose recognition is so overdue.
I salute them.
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