THE son of a man who fought for Bomber Command during the Second World War says his father would be “proud” to see the unit being honoured at last.
Stuart Green, 48, was in Green Park, London, on Thursday, to see the new Bomber Command Memorial being unveiled.
His dad Alan was a navigator during the Second World War and fought in battles including the first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne, Germany. He died in 1976, aged 36.
He said: “I think dad would have been proud about his contribution, especially because his own city of Coventry had been badly bombed and this was a way of fighting back.”
The family had run a pharmacy business in the city, where Stuart grew up, and two of their shops had been destroyed by Nazi Luftwaffe bombs.
Veterans came from all over the world to the event on Thursday, which was also attended by Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.
Stuart said: “It was a very dignified event. A lot of the guys were pleased that the sacrifice of their colleagues had finally been recognised.
“They had perhaps been conveniently forgotten about.”
Although 55,000 of the 125,000 men in Bomber Command were killed during the war, their contribution was for years played down due to controversy surrounding the bombing of civilians.
Stuart began researching his dad’s wartime past after his daughter Isabel’s Berkhamsted School history project led him to discover where Alan’s plane was shot down near Wognum in Holland.
Stuart is looking for the relatives of people who were with his dad on that plane, a four-engine Stirling bomber that crashed during the night of June 20-21 in 1942. If you are one of them, or know one of them, phone the newsdesk on 01442 898451.