Page 70 - Bomber Command News Today

Keith Lowe’s “Prisoners of History” examines how different countries’ statues and museums about the war resonate today.

“Acting Squadron Leader Boles as pilot, has completed numerous operations against the enemy, in the course of which he has invariably shown the utmost fortitude, courage and devotion to duty,” his award citation reads. Boles was initially posted to Singapore and spent his 21st birthday sheltering in a narrow slit trench, awaiting evacuation as the island came under Japanese attack. “Certainly no beers or partying for his 21st,” said his son-in-law, Andries Popping. Boles’ daugh...

A Bomber Command veteran who was shot down over France and sheltered by the Resistance before being held in a German concentration camp has been awarded the Légion d’Honneur.Stanley Booker, 98, was

Heroes of yesteryear The newly rekindled round of applause on a Thursday evening is designed to be a #ClapforHeroes as opposed to the previous endeavour, #ClapforCarers, which was recognising the incredible dedication of all the staff within the NHSin addition to all of the other key workers who have strived so hard during the Coronavirus pandemic. Last week, I realised just how many parallels there were with our last great national struggle, the dark days of the Second World War, an episod...

TEESSIDE International Airport is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, as it looks to make 2021 a transformative year full of opportunity despite the coronavirus pandemic. The airport was born in January 1941, when the airfield for the World War Two bomber base, then named RAF Middleton St George, was opened. In April of that year, it would go on to welcome its first Whitley bombers of the RAF’s 78 Squadron. During the war, it was allocated as a base for the Royal Canadian Air Forc...

Barry Dickens, Air Commodore Ret’t, Chairman of SSAFA Berkshire, said: “Squadron Leader Booker was a Bomber Command navigator in World War 2. He was shot down over occupied France, captured and eventually ended up in a concentration camp. Thanks to Luftwaffe intervention he was released into their charge and finally came home in 1945. "He packed more into the first 20 or so years of his life than most would in their whole lifetime. Modest and unassuming his survival after bailing out of...

Major Sam P. Bakshas woke up that morning with the secrets in his head. Bakshas was one of the men flying B-29 Superfortress bombers from three Pacific islands—Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. A writer dubbed these men “the thousand kids.” There were actually several thousand, and they were giving heart and soul to bombing the Japanese home islands—what they called “the Empire”—with no success. They were dropping bombs from high altitude and not hitting much. The air campaign against Jap...

“Prisoners of History: What Monuments to World II Tell us About our History and Ourselves” by Keith Lowe; William Collins (302 pages, $29.99) ––– A pedestal is a risky place to take a stand. In America, official tributes to leaders from Robert E. Lee to Abraham Lincoln have been destroyed or defaced. In Europe, memorials to Communist dictators have been torn down. In the Middle East, even ...

The odds were against them: The night my dads Lancaster was shot down in flames When you look up at the night sky on Sunday, think of a flaming Lancaster and a 19-year-old from Torontos Balmy Beach, swinging in his parachute Author of the article: John Carswell, National Post Publishing date: Jan 15, 2021  •  January 18, 2021  •  4 minute read  •  Andy Carswell is photographed beside a Fleet Finch trainer in 1941 at #12 Elementary Flying School in Goderich, Ont. Carswell wen...

The Bomber Command Museum of Canada (BCMC) plans to add more than 200 names to its Memorial Wall.