Sir – I understand that the Mayor of Dresden has asked Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, to stop the erection in Green Park of a Memorial to Bomber Command (BC). Planning permission for this has already been granted and design approved.
More donations are needed but Bomber Command Association (BCA) is hopeful that it will be erected in 2011.
It cannot be denied that Dresden was a legitimate target holding up the Soviet army's advance into Germany at a critical time and that the bombing attacks on Dresden by BC and US Army Air force (USAAF) were authorised by Deputy PM Clement Attlee and the War Cabinet: that they helped to save lives by hastening the end of the war in Europe: and to contribute to Allied victory.
I served as a navigator on Lancasters of 61,630 and 97 Squadrons from Sep 1943 to Nov 1944. So I had completed my two tours of operations and was not personally involved when the Dresden operation took place in February 1945.
But I know several former aircrew members who were and they all assure me that they regarded Dresden as just another target. BC air crew carried out orders from our properly authorised commanders. 56,000 were killed in action out of the 125,000 who were trained.
The few who have survived today throughout the world not only support the efforts to erect that long overdue memorial in Green Park, but still await the BC Campaign Medal which Harris and Churchill thought we deserved but which we never received.
Perhaps our new coalition Government will soon correct that oversight?
Jim Wright, Abingdon
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