Nothing much more to add other than thank you….. Never was so much owed by so many to so……

Indeed, RIP.

Per ardua ad astra.

And once there, rest in peace.

Superb photo Flashy. Looking at the history and stuff… they were all so young…. Hope he’s up there with his squadron… Never forget.

RIP Flight Lieutenant. Stand easy.

[video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fboWAA_ito [/video]

You just sorted my assembly for the Sixth Form on Friday.
Thanks, it’s like a chapter of history closing. I’ve an uncle still alive (just) who flew Lancasters.
Living history.

amazing life so young , heard a recording of a poem he wrote on the news in the car this morning,not a dry eye in the car . Thankyou Sir.
John

I know he wasn’t bomber command, but heading to London tomorrow & think we will try to get over to the Bomber Command War Memorial.

Pay my respects. Least we should do.

Stumpy, it’s not a very long walk to these;

Please go to all three. Take a moment.

First pic is at Capel le Ferne, CFH? Moving place…

Indeed it is, Julian.

“High Flight”

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

One of my favourite poems – we have been to John Gillespie Magee’s grave at Scopwick (among many CWGC graves we have seen, both here and abroad – France, Belgium and Greece)

Respect. We are now still the many and ever owing it to the few.
Hats off, heads bowed, silence. Peace.

Aye worth a trip to the Bomber Command memorial. I pass it every day on the way into work on the coach but had never stopped by. Not long after it opened I’d been out on the social and was riding back to Paddington Station and realised I had some time to spare before my next train so stopped in.

Standing there in the dark, raining outside, on your own with these massive bronze airman above you then reading some of the notes that had been left regarding friends, fathers, grandfathers is quite moving.

Such modest men who put everything on the line.

Without wishing to be disrespectful, he wasn’t the last, he was the oldest. There are still BoB pilots alive.

But, yeah, never in the field of human conflict etc. RIP.

Currently reading ‘Dambusters’ by James Holland.
Apart from the bravery of everyone that served, it’s the youth of them all that’s most impressive. Just a few years older than my son.
We should never forget that.

If you haven’t already read it get hold of a copy of First Light by Geoffrey Wellum.

Brave man RIP

Cheers CFH…yeah, I visit them almost everytime I go into London…

The Battle of Britain memorial is pretty amazing.

I don’t understand any of this. Didn’t Ben Affleck win the Battle of Britain?