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Bomber Command Medal
The quest for a Bomber Command Medal takes me back to the immediate post war years where I met up and became friendly with another Tasmanian Bill Falkinder, we had a standing joke, on the 9th November,1944, Bill married his lovely wife Pat, a WAAF and he was sure it was his luckiest day, whilst he kidded me that that same day I was so lucky to survive, (was awarded an immediate DFC and commissioned) so he couldn't decide who was luckiest.
Wing Commander C.W. (Bill) Falkinder, CBE, DSO, DFC & Bar, Pathfinder Leader navigator with Bob Law Pathfinder pilot extra ordinair, who following D-Day was promoted from Squadron Leader, to Group Captain, decided in Oct. 1944 to call it quits. With 114 raids under his belt Bill was quite happy to call it quits and get married. Bill and one other out of an intake of 20 Tasmanians were the only survivors, whilst I and two others were the only known survivors from my intake of aircrew.
Bill served in the Australian Parliament for 20 years and was an understudy to P.M. Menzies.
Bill was in total agreement that a Bomber Command Medal should have been awarded and also that the charge LMF should be done away with (see my website www.460squadronraaf.com). This is not just a bit of propaganda about what damage the RAF was doing but just the plain hard facts of what a couple of us survivors, who crossed to the other side of the World to join in the fight for freedom, and what our immediate thoughts were when we were once again settled in our native land
My efforts over the year's has been to get a just entitlement for our service (note once again the fight for the Air/Crew Europe Star see my website) which took 58 years.
WE didn't make excuses we got in and got the job done, even though every 2nd airman was dying. Now we have nothing but excuses while a Battle of Waterloo Medal was granted 28 years after the battle, and the Suez Medal was granted just under 50 years later.
Do we die with excuses ringing in our ears, or do we die with a Bomber Command Medal on our coffin. A decision is being called for YES or NO.
Laurie Woods, 460 Squadron, Queensland
Click here to visit Laurie Woods' website
Click here to visit: "Australian War Memorial", Remembering 1942
Below: a newspaper article about the"forgotten heroes".
Click here to open a new windows with an enlarged version of this newspaper article.
Below: newspaper article about the memorial on Sunday 1st June 2008
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