Almost 70 years after the end of the Second World War, the men of Bomber Command have been honoured with a memorial which has been opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The memorial is a 9ft high bronze statue of a full aircrew ready to depart on a mission.
More than 55,000 members of Bomber Command lost their lives and the delay in commemorating the sacrifice of this part of the RAF is highly controversial. Funds for the memorial have been raised by public appeal. The ceremony ended with a flypast by five RAF GR4 Tornado bomber aircraft crewed by today’s Royal Air Force. This was followed by a flypast by the RAF’s last flying Lancaster Bomber, which dropped poppies over Green Park as a message of remembrance for the 55,573 Bomber aircrew lost.