BOMBER COMMAND AND ITS MISSION

There is nothing in my head, and there is too much in my head, so it is difficult for me to choose a comment or a subject for a blog that will entertain or enlighten.

I have been talking to my Sister tonight, and told her about an e-mail I had sent to Don Martin, Journalist, who ended one of his recent columns (dealing with the infamous plaque in the National War Museum that criticizes the morality of Bomber Command) with the following quotation.

"There is something seriously warped when their National War Museum is demonized by a country's veterans."

In my e-mail to Don Martin I paraphrased his own words, -

"there is something seriously warped when a county's veterans are demonized by their National War Museum. For Shame!"

I spoke to him as the wife of a Lancaster Pilot who played a valiant part in the effort to maintain a "Second Front " - one which made it possible for Allied Ground Forces to conclude an earlier end to the war than would have been possible without the efforts of Bomber Command.

I mentioned to him the loss my Husband and his family sustained when his two brothers were killed in World War Two, fighting to maintain the Freedom that allows these new age historians to be so morally righteous without any sense of time, place and circumstances, - or any credentials to make judgments.

I did not expect a reply from him, - indeed, I do not expect my words made any impression upon him at all, but I somehow felt better for having written them.


Both Husband and I were heartened by a rider to the film which was shown to the High School students he spoke to at the beginning of this week. The rider spoke of the effect of the bombing of targets in Germany that were contributing to the Nazi war effort, whether by direct troop involvement, munitions and factory involvement, or administration. The aim of Bomber Command was to shorten the war and save as many Allied soldiers' lives as possible. The effort expended was in direct ratio to the intransigence and determination of Hitler to continue fighting, no matter the cost to his country or its civilian population.

It spoke also of the insult to the integrity of those members of Bomber Command who risked their lives nightly to ensure an Allied victory, and most especially to those airmen who lie buried in the cemeteries of Europe.

Hopefully the opinions of those who experienced these years of struggle will help to contradict the re-written interpretation of history which is now being politically vaunted in an effort to make Canada into something it is not.

Or at least this generation of young people will know of the insult which is being perpetrated by certain segments of society, making the few veterans who are left angry, disillusioned and despairing of the future of this country. A War Museum which does not laud its country's veterans for the service they have rendered, but instead points an accusing finger, is a shameful institution.

This history which is being re-written and re-interpreted is over sixty years old, but it is still of the utmost importance that the generations that follow are not fed political propaganda by young ultra liberal historians who would change the whole complexion of a Canada which did not falter and did not fail in its responsibilities.

Climbing down off the Soap Box now, but still feeling passionate about Bomber Command and the way it is being vilified.