Due Respects for Aussie Flyers

[Aussie1001]

Sorry P Popsie i haven't posted for a while ( 7 months ) been very busy with senor at school and forgot about this website. I think you have an excellent idea and should pursue it. Let me know if you need help.
Cheers
Michael

 

[petadel]

I read the refer txt - dedication of Bomber Command and note that even the CDF was represented - at least the Chief of Air Staff was not too busy.

As for the furture perhaps a public education campaign has to be run by the RAAF (Association perhaps) on the formation of the 460/463/467 et al that served in the European bomber group.

I note there is a move af oot in the UK for similar. Joint efforts always produce more circulation.

Gordon Brown backs RAF Bomber Command Memorial campaign - Telegraph

The attendance of our Mr Rudd to an overseas dedication may also be more likely - he loves being overseas - perhaps a commemoration on the 7 Nov (467 Sqd) then appearance at the 11 Nov (Armistice) with the Queen for a proper dedication.

You have my support and hpe to see a proper dedication to all the 55 000 or so aircrew that never returned within Bomber Command.

 

[Watanbe]

Heinz mate I can still have a browse of that article if you want me to! I forgot about it, if you haven't handed it up already send it to me over msn!

 

[Flightpath]

Hi Alex,

a great idea and something that should have been done long ago.

There should be a RAAF Bomber Command Day each year with a service at the Bomber Command memorial in Canberra. (Maybe there already is, I've been away from home for nine years now!).

I've had this 462 squadron photo for a long time............ RAAF, RAF aircrew plus a WAAF and a dog.

I'll be watching with interest from here in Norway,

cheers good luck,

-John
Asker, Norway

 

[Aussie1001]

As you said Ruddy i think would be more approachable than any of our other ministers. I would be happy to put my name on a petition or if it were needed i am rather good at english so i could do something with that i'm sure.
Tell me if you need me mate
(P.M me if you do so it gets to my email account)
Cheers Mate
~Michael

 

[A4K]

Found this today on an NZ aviation related forum site!:

Statue finds home
By CARALISE MOORE - Rodney Times | Thursday, 26 February 2009

Several Rodney veterans are joining others from throughout New Zealand and Australia on Sunday for the unveiling of a controversial memorial for New Zealanders who served with the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.


The special ceremony is at the Auckland War Memorial Museum from 11am.

Bomber Command Association administrator Peter Wheeler of Waimauku says some veterans are in their 80s and 90s, but very few people have declined the invitation.

"What's also been good is that in some cases people who had slipped off our records have turned up again."

Warkworth's Harry Saunders will attend, celebrating his 87th birthday the same day.

Mr Saunders was among ground crew servicing Spitfires and Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain.

He then served on Catalina flying boats as a flight engineer, and with Liberator bombers in Burma during the latter part of the war with Japan.

Mr Saunders is secretary of the New Zealand Goldfish Club, whose members bailed out of aircraft and landed in the sea, using vital equipment to save their lives.

Mr Saunders landed in the North Sea near Murray Firth when mechanical problems hit the Catalina he was in. Catalinas did the run from Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay, escorting shipping.

Other Rodney veterans expected at Sunday's ceremony include Orewa's Gordon Woodroofe, George Cammish of Orewa, 'Bunny' Burrows of Manly and Whenuapai airbase commander Edwart Poot.

The memorial is a collaboration between the New Zealand Bomber Command Association and the museum.

Agreement for the unveiling was reached following a dispute over the permanent home for the memorial.

Bomber Command veterans hoped the $100,000 sculpture, fundraised by the public and designed by Wellington's Weta Workshops, would be housed within the museum's Hall of Memories.

But museum bosses said at 1.8 metres high, 1.2 metres wide and a tonne, the work was too big to be permanently installed there.

Instead, the bronze and marble statue of a Lancaster bomber and seven crew will be unveiled in the Hall of Memories, then moved to a nearby location on the museum's third floor for public viewing.

"The museum trust board is pleased with the positive outcome," says board chairman David Hill.

"It was always our desire to find an appropriate and suitable home for the memorial, and now we feel sure that we will develop a plan that is both high-quality and respectful to all parties."

A museum spokesman says a long-term strategy is still being worked through.

Bill Simpson of the NZ Bomber Command Association echoes this sentiment and hopes to attend.

"It has always been a high priority for us to have a formal dedication ceremony within the museum as soon as feasible," he says.

Statue finds home - local-news - auckland | Stuff.co.nz



After almost 65 years, Bomber Command veterans will see a memorial in their honour unveiled at the Auckland War Memorial Museum this weekend.

Bomber veterans get their memorial at long last
By CARLY TAWHIAO - Auckland City Harbour News | Friday, 27 February 2009

Among the 200 guests expected to attend the ceremony, including some of the remaining 100 veterans of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, Des Andrewes and George Hiam will be standing proud and tall.

Eighty-five-year-old Mr Hiam served as a navigator in bombers like the Lancaster Mk III and hopes the memorial will give recognition to the 2000 Bomber Command airmen who lost their lives during World War Two.

"There were 6000 in the Bomber Command, but a third of them never came back," says Mr Hiam.

Mr Andrewes was also a navigator, a job he says would now be replaced with GPS.

"We're long in the tooth," the 88-year-old says.

"You can talk all you like but unless you've been there you can't really understand what it's like. Not really. The crew were like your family."

The Sandringham resident says it was sheer luck that he returned to New Zealand with a new wife and son after the war and the memorial service means a lot to the veterans still alive today, as well as their families.

A small group of Bomber Command veterans meet weekly at Motat as service volunteers, and have done so for at least 20 years.

They are part of a dedicated team responsible for bomber memorabilia at Motat, including the restoration of a Lancaster.

The idea for a memorial was initiated by Bomber Command Association president Bill Simpson and driven by administrator Peter Wheeler, who wrote a book about the Bomber Command in 2005.

The memorial's unveiling follows a dispute over the permanent home of the memorial.

Veterans hoped it would be housed within the museum's hall of memories, but museum bosses said it was too big to be permanently installed there.

The $100,000 memorial designed by Weta Workshop features a crew of seven sculpted out of bronze and set in marble clouds.

The unveiling will take place at 11am on Sunday in the Hall of Memories before being permanently installed by the Spitfire Gallery entrance.

Bomber veterans get their memorial at long last | Stuff.co.nz

 

[Wildcat]

Good to hear!!

 

[462 Squadron Historian]

There are plenty of Australians who have remembered our boys in all corners of the world, who really cares if the politicians can't be bothered, our war dead would likely not want them there anyway!

I have been to Germany myself to lay a memorial plaque at the site of a 462SQN Halifax crash, the CO of 462SQN was there as well as quite a few uniformed members of the RAAF and RAF, a politician would have ruined the atmosphere.

 

[OldSkeptic]

Greetings all,
Firstly I would like to introduce myself. A.P.Stacey here pleased to meet you, since my childhood experiences of listening to my elder's tales of war I have had a fascination with this subject. I myself served in the Australian army and among my relatives. number veterans of The Somme' Dunkirk, The Bomber Offensive 39-45. , Korea.

Through research I have been doing recently on Bomber Command it has come to my attention that no Australian Prime Minister has laid wreaths at any of the war memorials that contain some 7200 of my fellow Australians.

I feel this is a grave oversight by our politicians. Especially when you consider that of all the men who left this country and fought in combat during WWII only 2% of them actually flew in the hostile skies of Fortress Europe. Yet from that 2% came 20% of the fatalities our Nation sacrificed.

I believe that our current Prime Minister Mr. Kevin Rudd is approachable enough to petition on this subject. I would be looking to get an agreement on from him on setting an agenda for a visitation to one of the Memorials,

As The Prime Minister is my local member and I am told I went to high school with him {I don't remember him} I feel it is my obligation to get this issue attended to.

At this point I am merely seeking support from interested parties who would like to contribute their input and possibly, when the time arrives circulate petitions supporting this proposal.

Thank you for listening and I hope to hear from you soon
Cheers. A.P.Stacey

Agree 100% and best luck. Our (we Aussies) forgotten few. I'd add our RAN people too.