'Bomber boys' clasp honour is 'an insult', says veteran

I would be interested to know how many former bomber crews couldn’t care less about some extra medals ! I recall a former village resident who had been on Stirlings never once bringing the subject up at all .

Few worried about gongs from my experience. Recognition for the sacrifices yes but not a bit of tin

Webpilot you had more chance of surviving the Somme than a tour on Bombers for what it’s worth. The losses were staggering.

Yes, I’m well versed in the stats. I was using the Somme as a comparison purely in terms of an event that generated many casualties

And it can go on and on. That is the problem with this foolish attempt to win votes, every time someone is satisfied there will be someone else who feels they should have had a medal. Coastal Command etc… Another thing that rankles with me, in the sense that I think there is an element of selected fairness, is the criteria for the clasp. Would I be correct in saying that if you were killed flying from an OTU between May and Aug 1945 there would be no entitlement, but if you died flying in an OTU before May 45 there would be, i.e, because you were in Bomber Command but your service was curtailed by death?

As with the Bomber Command Memorial; it just hasn’t been done correctly.

I would be interested to know how many former bomber crews couldn’t care less about some extra medals ! I recall a former village resident who had been on Stirlings never once bringing the subject up at all .

Worth repeating what I said when this came up before. Bomber Command fought a campaign made up of several battles, Battle of Rhur, Battle of Hamburg, Battle of Berlin etc. hence the argument for a Campaign medal and not a “battle” clasp. When this was first reported a few weeks ago, the Govt. argued that BC had been treated differently to “Fighter Command”. What they were referring to was the BofB Clasp, not FIghter Command. Even this argument of course falls on its head, because you could have been in Fighter Command, not been in the BofB and not got anything extra.

It’s all too late, too little, non sensical, but at least it’s something.

Webpilot you had more chance of surviving the Somme than a tour on Bombers for what it’s worth. The losses were staggering.

Interestingly we have the family of one “Bomber Boy” presenting the vet (an ex Flight Engineer on Halifaxes) with his clasp at our “Bomber Boys” veteran signing day at the museum on 6th April. I guess opinion will be devided on this one, but it is a move in the right direction at least. (Sorry about the second shameless punt :diablo: more punts will be inserted where relevant, well it is all for a good cause at least).

I am fairly certain that there will be very few votes occasioned by this announcement (and also that for the Arctic Convoys!). Why, then, did the Govt not wait a couple of decades more before making the decision? Then, the costs would have been significantly reduced!!
You can see why I am such a committed Conspiracist! Govts/Councils, etc, NEVER EVER do anything that appears to be for the best without some ulterior motive for themselves.
I should move to Tunbridge Wells!!
Resmoroh

I hear what you are saying about the scale of numbers, but I suppose an individual ‘sacrifice’ is just that – irrespective of whether it was an individual in a small(er) group or within a large group. Despite the scale of loss in BC you could equally argue the importance of the Battle of Britain warranted its own medal.

Absolutely. There’s no scale of grief or loss in death, one loss is as important as many but the sheer scale does tend to magnify the issue. It should never have been a problem, and we all know the politics that played their part but recognition while the survivors were still alive would have lanced this particular issue, methinks.

It really is an intractable problem, Webpilot. If indeed it is a problem at all.

I hear what you are saying about the scale of numbers, but I suppose an individual ‘sacrifice’ is just that – irrespective of whether it was an individual in a small(er) group or within a large group. Despite the scale of loss in BC you could equally argue the importance of the Battle of Britain warranted its own medal.

2,917 men earned that clasp (although I think there has been some subsequent fine-tuning of the number) and of those 544 lost their lives in the battle. A significant percentage in a more than significant battle.

As regards the clasp, Battle of Britain pilots only received a clasp to the 39-45 star, not a medal. You could equally argue that they should have a specific medal, too. I would add that this coveted clasp hardly demeans the service these brave men gave in 1940. On the contrary.

I tend to agree – I guess that to many the extreme sacrifice of the Bomber boys in terms of sheer numbers of casualties differentiates their campaign from that of the Battle of Britain pilots, but you could make the same argument for infantry involved in the Somme deserving their own medal. The real problem is that it is all too late – a clasp should have been promulgated many many years ago to honour them when most of the survivors were still around.

I have the greatest respect and admiration for the Bomber Command boys. We all do. However, you could argue that most of the BC aircrew were in receipt of the Aircrew Europe star and thus, per se, there is already a medal, albeit it not specific to BC.

As regards the clasp, Battle of Britain pilots only received a clasp to the 39-45 star, not a medal. You could equally argue that they should have a specific medal, too. I would add that this coveted clasp hardly demeans the service these brave men gave in 1940. On the contrary.