My disappointment at the Ewan McGregor documentary "Bomber Boys"

Last night I watched a documentary called "Bomber Boys" featuring Ewan McGregor and his ex RAF pilot brother Colin. The documentary had two strands, the first the story of Colin learning to fly a Lancaster and the second, was a potted history of Bomber command. The first strand, the story of Colin, who flew Tornado jets for the RAF, getting to grips with a vintage four engine bomber was fascinating. The second strand, the potted history of the bomber campaign was a complete travesty. Anyone watching the film would think that the Lancaster was the only bomber that mattered and that its pilots and crews were the only ones who made a difference. This is complete baloney and shows the complete lack of research that the program makers had undertaken.

My father was a member of bomber command. He flew twin engine Wellingtons for 40 squadron. Whilst there were 7,000 odd Lancasters produced, the Wellington was far and away the most numerous bomber with over 11,000 produced. It was used in operational missions during every year of the war. The first bombing raid of the war on 18th December 1939 was flown by Wellingtons and the last operational bombing raid of the war by Wellingtons was flown by 40 squadron in 1945. Of all the operations undertaken by Bomber command to disrupt the German war industry effort, the one deemed most successful was the mining of the Danube, which was undertaken by Wellingtons based in Italy. This reduced the flow of freight on the river, the main artery for central european freight to a trickle, restricting supplies of oil etc to the Reich. In some ways, perhaps the most important campaign of all for bomber command was to destroy the flotilla of barges that Hitler was assembling in 1940 to launch operation Sealion, the planned invasion of Great Britain. The total success of this campaign was one of the main reasons Hitler decided that a quick campaign against mainland Britain was not practical. I have never understood why no one ever mentions either of these efforts, which were highly successful. It should also be noted that Wellingtons were in production for the duration of the war. Despite being withdrawn from UK based bombing missions against Germany, they were used across the campaign, in Costal Command, Italy, Africa, India and the Far East. In many ways the operational history was far more intersting than the Heavies, which dominated the European campaign.

 Whilst it was clear that the heavies such as the Lancasters and the other (also rather oddly ignored) Stirlings and Halifaxes made a massive contribution, I find the airbrushing of the contribution of everything apart from the Lancasters to be verging on offensive to crews of other types of aircraft. In many ways, the efforts of the crews flying obsolete aircraft, night after night was truly staggering. To have their contribution ignored is scandalous. I have an old box of pictures from my fathers collection, including pictures of his bombing of Spetzia harbour. You can see the bombs landing on Axis warships in the harbour and bullets being fired up at him. My father flew 40 operational missions from the UK, North Africa and Italy in 1943 and 1944, before being shot down. As he passed away in 1987, he never saw the RAF memorial and never received a campaign medal. As I watched the documentary, I wondered how he would have felt about the efforts of him and his crew being airbrushed out of the history of Bomber command. One of the things which most irked my father was that whenever he told anyone he flew bombers, the first question was always "Lancasters?". He said he felt great sympathy for Hurricane fighter pilots, who similarly lived in the shadow of Spitfire pilots.

I once asked my father whether he'd have liked to have flown in a Lancaster squadron. He said that his squadron were happy to be given the missions they were allocated to. His squadron flew in support of Montgomeries campaign in North Africa, bombed military installations in Italy and oil fields in Romania. He said that when he scored a direct hit on an Oil processing plant in Romania with a 4,000 bomb, he felt he'd made a massive contribution to the war effort, with the flames being visible for over 100 miles. Although his squadron did bomb Cologne, he said he didn't like the concept of bombing civilian centres, that were the mainstay of the Uk based campaign. He did however have huge respect for Athur Harris, who he said was a brilliant leader. His view of the area bombing was that the UK was involved in a fight to the death with the Nazi's and as such, the UK had to use every means possible to defeat the Hitler. He said that the campaign undertaken by Harris was the only one which could materially affect Germany at the time. It tied up a huge part of the German war machine, that would otherwise have been deployed in the front line. If all of the 1 million people involved in air defence and the 88mm Anti Aircraft guns had been deployed against the Russians or the Western Allies, the war may well have gone on for another year.

It is truly scandalous that, as McGregor stated, Churchill never thanked bomber command or awarded the crews a campaign medal. It is sad that a long documentary, that was in many ways an excellent program, chose to neglect a mention for the majority of bomber command crews, who flew aircraft other than Lancasters. It spoiled what would otherwise have been an excellent program. I just hope that one day we get a program which does justice to Bomber command and the whole campaign.

A country full of pisstakers

There are two stories in the news at the moment which highlighted to me how much this country has changed from being a nation of heroes into a nation of pisstakers. Lets start with this story on the Hendon Times website


http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/8252891.Iconic_war_bomber_moved_from_RAF_museum_to_begin_five_year_restoration/

This story was poignant to me because my father flew a Wellington bomber during the second world war. He was shot down in one whilst bombing the Ploesti oil fields in Romania, was taken prisoner, escaped and saw out the war back in England as a pilot instructor and an air accident investigation officer. His best friend and rear gunner, F/o Spud Murphy was killed when they were shot down. To this day the bravery of the crews of bomber command has not been officially recognised by the government, despite them having the highest attrition rate of any wing of  the armed forces. My father explained to me at a very young age just how rotten the British Government was, when he explained that he was based in Foggia air base in Italy. As he was living in a tent, he got a "hard living allowance" of a couple of shillings. For the sixty eight days he was in a Prisoner of War camp, with a diet of half a loaf of bread, a cucumber and a bowl of soup, this was withdrawn. My father flew 40 missions over enemy territory in total. By the time he was shot down in 1944 over Ploesti, every other crew he'd started with in 40 squadron had also been shot down. This squadron was far from unusual. For all his sacrifice, not even an official thank you. His view "You do it for your friends and family, not for the shiny arsed suits who send you there". What did he do it for?

Forward 64 years to 2010. Who stands up for the normal working man today? Who fights to ensure that we all get a fair deal? You would hope that the leaders of our trades unions. Well read this report in yesterdays Daily Express

http://express.co.uk/posts/view/184380/Trade-Union-rich-list-revealed

Union leaders such as Dave Prentis at UNISON get £127,436 per year. Derek Simpson of Unite gets £120,328  and Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers gets £124,483.  I read this and was totally disgusted. How can it possibly be right for people at the top of Unions to be getting three or four times the salary of their average members? They sit in their comfy offices, attending conferences and meetings, whilst some of their members are up to their necks in S**T for barely the minimum wage. What value do these fat cats add? I cannot believe that someone on such outrageous wages can truly understand or represent someone struggling on the minimum wage. It sets a rotten example and shows them to be hypocrites.

In the past couple of years, this blog has detailed how Sir Fred Goodwin, former boss of RBS got paid tens of millions of pounds to bankrupt the organisation. Then we have Moir Lockhead, boss of First Capital Connect, the train company which has failed to run a proper service for most of the last year. His reported package is £802,000 for a company which attracted a petition of nearly 6,000 of it's customers demanding it be sacked from the franchise.

Closer to home, we have Barnet Council, who's CEO Nick Walkley earns £200,000 per annum and his two deputies earn £180,000 each. These three characters earn £560,000 between them. Barnet Council is currently planning to abolish the Sheltered housing warden service in a bid to save £400,000. It is amazing to think that if they paid Mr Walkley £85,000, sacked one deputy and paid the other £75,000 they could save the warden service. I don't suppose they even gave that one a second thought. I suppose Mr Walkley wouldn't get out of bed for a mere £85,000 pittance of a salary, though would he (Note : When the Tories took over in 2003, the then CEO Leo Boland was on a salary of £114,000 per annum).

Then there is one of the loves of my life. Football. There was a report in the papers that England stars Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerard have pulled out of the Festival of Skills. The reason? They felt it was inappropriate to get the £500,000 fee after being so crap in the world cup. Did it not occur to these pair of chancers that the way to restore a little bit of faith in themselves would have been to donate their fee to a youth football charity? On their salaries, would they miss the cash?

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people in this country who are not on the take, who are not pisstakers. All of the boys in Afghanistan for a  start. The many front line staff in the NHS, teachers, community workers, youth group leaders, mums and dads running football teams. The list is endless. The trouble is that it seems to me at every level, the people who are meant to be helping them at the top level are on the take. Buy the Guardian on a Wednesday and check the jobs on the Society page

This is what you'll find :-


http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/jobs/charities?sort=salary

How about Government jobs


http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/jobs/government?sort=salary

Are we a country run by a bunch of pisstakers? I'll let you decide for yourself (P.S. I hope you found yourself a nice new highly paid career amongst all those lovely jobs)

Defiance: Israel, Hamas, Rockets & RAF area bombing

I spent a nice quiet evening in with the family watching DVD's last night. We've had a busy week and to be quite honest, an evening in was pleasant. As I had to pick eldest daughter up from Luton airport at midnight, returning from Swim Camp, it was also a good reason not to drink. One of the films chosen was Defiance. This stars Daniel Craig and tells the story of the Bielski brothers, who set up a camp for Jews fleeing Nazi extermination in Belarus, in the USSR during the Nazi occupation. It is a very good film. Not being familiar with the story, I don't really know how accurate it was, but I think that anything which reminds us of sheer evilness of the Nazi regime is clearly something to be applauded. Tuvia Bielski is clearly someone who's name should be known more widely. The generally accepted image of the Jewish people under Nazi occupation was one of passive compliance. This was clearly not the case with Bielski or his band. They are an example to the whole world of why it is vital to fight tyranny when sometimes it seems hopeless.

After the film, as I drove up to Luton Airport, I was thinking about the situation in Israel, in light of the film. Given that many of the residents of Bielski's camp ended up as citizens of Israel, it is worth giving the matter some consideration. As I drove along, I pondered the thought that last year, the story of the war between Hamas & Israel was lead news item for many a day. The Israeli justification for the attack was the daily rocket attacks by Hamas on Israeli towns. The thought occurred to me that I hadn't seen a news report about a single Rocket attack since the end of the Israeli attack. Was this due to the story not being newsworthy any more, or have Hamas changed their tactics & decided to use political means rather than violence to further their aims. I did a quick google and it certainly seems the case that Hamas is still firing rockets. It must be said that the reports are few and far between, since the end of the conflict (although how much of this is due to the story not being "hot", I know not). According to the report I've linked to, Israel maintains a policy of Tit for Tat attacks. The question I have is whether this will ever truly deliver the results which the Israeli generals hope.

I firmly believe that every sovereign country has a right to defend itself from attack. Israel is clearly being attacked, therefore it cannot be disputed that it is within it's rights to mount actions necessary to defend it's population. If I were an Israeli, the question I'd be asking is whether the current political and military strategy will work. The precident of history does not really bode well. The leader of bomber command during WWII, Arthur Harris, claimed that the Nazi's could be bombed into submission. My dad flew a Wellington bomber for 40 squadron, part of 205 bomber group as part of this offensive. I've taken a keen interest in the subject, to decide whether the sacrifices he and his comrades made were worth it. As part of the campaign lead by Harris, nearly a million tons of bombs were dropped on Germany. Over 60 towns were decimated, 595,000 civilians were killed. At the end of the war, the RAF set up a group to review the findings and see whether the policy of area bombing of cities, with no military value assisted the Allied war effort. The results were inconclusive. German morale did not crack. Until the final weeks of the war, production held up. The policy of hitting oil targets had a far more profound and devastating effect than wiping out cities such as Dresden. One of the most successful campaigns was mounted by my fathers squadron, in mining the Danube. This prevented barges loaded with oil & other supplies from Rumania reaching Germany. As the Nazi's didn't care about their civilian population, the attacks made little difference to the leadership. Apologists for the campaign claim that huge resources were tied up defending German cities. This is nonsense. If the RAF had purely attacked targets in Germany with military or economic value and concentrated their tactics on these targets, the effects would have been more damaging, the same resources would have been tied up and the war may well have ended sooner. 55,000 air crew were killed. RAF bomber command had the highest attrition rate of any service in the war with a 40% casualty rate. The tours of duty were set such that a crew had a 50/50 chance of surviving their tour. Bomber command was comprised of volounteers.

Which brings us back to the Israeli campaign against Hamas. If the RAF could fail so spectacularly against the Nazi's, with a campaign to undermine German morale, how do they expect their campaign to succeed against Hamas. Hamas have a similar disregard for their people, treating them as human shields and cannon fodder. Like the Nazi's in 1944 they have no prospect of defeating Israel on the battlefield, but this will not prevent them from sacrificing their citizens. This brings us back to Israel. How should they respond to rocket attacks? I've got to say that I really don't know, but they should certainly change their tactics. If they put the energies they've expended on military campaigns into more subtle approaches, could they have been less successful in stopping the attacks?

As to Hamas? Well in the unlikely event that anyone from Hamas would read this blog or listen to reason, I'll ask this question. What have all of the rockets you've launched achieved? How have the Palestinian people benefitted? With my Irish Catholic roots it is quite clear to me that the population of Northern Ireland's lives are far better now than during the troubles. They may not have everything they want, but ordinary people can lead their lives in peace, without fear. If I were a political leader, that would be my very minimum first objective. Unlike Bielski's partisans, the Palestinian people will not be carted off to death camps if their leaders lay down their weapons and engage in political dialog. They will merely achieve a better quality of life.

I used to argue long and hard with my Dad about area bombing. My mum once butted in and told me that what I should realise is that after the Blitz, it cheered the population of London up no end to here that German cities were being destroyed. I suspect that if the Israeli government were honest, this is the primary reason for the tit for tat attacks. It is clear that they have little effect in stopping the attacks.

I wonder how Tuvia Bielski would have approached the issue?

BNP - Stealing our honour and memories

The picture to the right is taken from the Australian war memorial website. The caption reads :-

Italy. c. April 1944. Sergeant Jack Rae of Welshpool, WA, NCO in charge of the RAAF Mobile Officer's shop in Italy, is seen here endeavouring to supply Pilot Officer A. T. Duff of Woollahra, NSW, one of the shortest officers in the RAAF (5 feet 1 inch) with a pair of slacks. Flying Officer L. F. Tichborne of Charters Towers, Qld, looks on in amusement. Both officers are serving with an RAF bombers squadron in Italy.

The officer in the middle was my dad. I documented his experiences for remembrance day in a previous blog. The reason I've revisited this, is this BNP blog (click & hold your nose). My father flew Wellington bombers, as featured in the picture on Darby's blog. My father lost his best friend when he was shot down on his 40th op over Bucharest. For all you, me or Simon Darby know, he could be flying one of the planes pictured in his facist blog. In the picture my Dad is smiling. If he thought that he or his comrades bravery would be hijacked by the British successors to the people they sacrificed so much to fight, he'd be turning in his grave. I am truly disgusted by the way the BNP use these images. We were fighting the Nazi's for gods sake !!!!