RAF Bomber Command memorial

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/3agqkbo

So German politicians have called on Britain to abandon plans to build a memorial to RAF bomber crews.

Why are the British always being asked to apologise?

We lost 55,573 RAF bomber crew personal, in WW2, so it is deserving that a memorial is created in our capital, to remember these brave airmen who set out each night to fly the skies of Europe..

Yes 45,000 innocent German civilians lost their lives in Hamburg alone, and another 25,000 - 35,000 in Dresden during WW2, but 20,083 Londoners, plus 23,602 in other parts of Britain were killed in the Blitz itself.

This was war, and after all the Germans started bombing civilians..

[Sqad]

I totally agree with all that you have said.

[Bbbananas]

And so do I.

[jake-the-peg]

I wonder what would have happened to a German Luftwaffe Pilot who'd said "No"

This "the Germans started it " idea you have, as if the entire German Nation were responsible is a tiny bit simplistic don't you think?

Not surprising though - I'm pretty sure any Iraqi would blame you for what happened to their country regardless of what you might or might not think about Tony Blair

[kinell]

the germans should consider themselves lucky to have got off so lightly

a few months later and they would have copped a hiroshima special

and thoroughly deserved it

my father was a member of bomber command for four years and we should remember that most of the 55 thousand dead were young men in their teens and early twenties taking exceptional risks in order to bring germany to its knees - by any means - and for them to be denied recognition by way of a campaign medal or memorial is a disgrace

[anotheoldgit]

jake-the-peg

/// This "the Germans started it " idea you have, as if the entire German Nation were responsible is a tiny bit simplistic don't you think? ///

I did not expect anyone to take me literally when I said "The Germans", but after all it was the Germans we were at war with wasn't it?.

But when one sees the masses giving the Nazi salute, and the captured RAF bomber crews being spat at and missiles thrown at them as they are frog marched through the German streets, then it is nearer the truth than one thinks.

[Answerprancer]

...aaaand again "...let me guess".
You really ought to take up pot smoking AOG.

[Sqad]

steve,,,,I respect your point, but cannot accept it.

Without the Allied forces, Fighter Command in 1940, the Germans would have occupied the UK and that would not have been a pleasant thought. Bomber Command then took over bombing the Messerschmitt factories and the ball bearing factories in an effort to defend our country against a dangerous invader.
I couldn´t care less how many Germans were killed as I didn´t know any Germans, only as dangerous opponents who would kill you unless you killed them. Collateral damage, inevitable casualties of war.

Bomber Command deserves a memorial.

[Sqad]

The National World War 2 Memorial in Washington DC was opened in 2004 and I just wonder whether or not there was a request to the Japanese Government for permission or even discussion for erecting this memorial to American forces that died.

I don´t know, but I doubt it.

[stewey]

I think that sixty-five years after the fact is far too late for either 'side' to be erecting memorials.

[boxtops]

We already have the beautiful Battle of Britain memorial at Capel-le-Ferne, near here http://www.spifiremem....uk/spifire/capel.htm where so many flights left from. Nobody's complaining about that, it's lovely, and it's been there many years, although perhaps not as highprofile to the general public as one in London might be.
The Germans could argue the same about all our War Memorials - they're not glorifying war. We want to remember our own. Go for it.

[Ankou]

aog, would you be happy with a luftwaffe memorial commemorating the blitz ?

[sandyRoe]

Sometimes good men do bad things in a war. In my eyes a memorial to the men of Bomber Command would be similar to a memorial to the SS.
It's best forgotten.

[Sqad]

Ankou.....slight difference.....we won.....they lost.

[Quizmonster]

In the four years he's been around, this has got to be a first...I actually AGREE with Anotheoldgit!
King James Bible, Hosea Chapter 8 Verse 7, "For they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind."
Air Marshal Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris, "The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
And darn-well right, too! Of course we should commemorate the magnificent work the men of Bomber Command did in World War II and let German objections go to hell!

[Ankou]

one mans patriotic duty is another mans war crime.

[Sqad]

Quizmonster.....blimey, you certainly got that "of your chest"

[McMouse]

That nice man Adolf Hitler changed the tactics of bombing RAF Stations and munitions factories etc to the Blitz of civilians in London on 7th September 1940. On the orders of that nasty man Winston Churchill, Bomber Command retaliated and knocked sh1t out of Hamburg, Dresden etc. We owe our very existence to the work of the RAF during that period and I for one would subscribe to a monument to BC. If the bloody krauts don't like it, tough titty.

[kinell]

especially for the lefties

dont mention the war

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xnNhzgcWTk