Another excellent programme this week! A welcome alternative to the ‘Spitfire and Lancaster won the air war’ documentaries we’re usually given. Rupert ‘Tiny’ Cooling was excellent, hopefully his memoirs or a book of his service career might be published one day, he contributed to Michael Bowyer’s ‘Wellington, The Geodetic Giant’. What a shame he never got to see the finished programme. The recollections of the ladies and gentlemen and next of kin of those that built the Wellingtons were superb and it was good to see Airbus invite them all back.
It was welcome to have Max Hastings on as the book ‘Bomber Command’ did a lot to bring the survivors of Bomber Command and their contribution to victory out to be seen and heard when it was published over 30 years ago.

Hi – Just come across you posting and hope you won’t mind me mentioning that Tiny Cooling’s story features in my book ‘Five of the Many’. It was a few years ago that I wrote the book; Tiny’s story opens the book, providing an excellent insight into the early days of the bomber offensive. Tiny was extremely helpful and a real gentleman. On quite a few occasions the interview became emotional as Tiny recalled lost colleagues. It was a real privilege to write up his story.
Steve Darlow
http://www.stevedarlow.co.uk