MAY I reply to the letter about Bomber Command in your issue of January 2?
I am sorry to be so tardy but as I do not live in Oxford, I do not always see your paper.
I appreciate what Laurie Woods, DFC and Jim Wright, DFC say but I am not alone in thinking that the absence of a medal for Bomber Command (originally an insult) has become, through a general recognition of their excellence, an honour in itself, to be worn with pride.
Like the expression ‘Old Contemptibles’ and ‘Fred Karno’s Army’ the slight has become a symbol of pride; of glory; and of never-failing gratitude to those of us (not a few) who know precisely why we are speaking English today.
I, born the year before the Dambusters’ Raid, say with Walter Scott: ‘Never let me hear that brave blood has been shed in vain. It sends a roaring voice down through all time.’ For 75 years we, the grateful, have heard that roaring.
A C G BROWN Water Street Chesterton Cambridge
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