A very moving programme about the WW2 British Bombers and crews of the RAF.
125,000 young men faced one of the most dangerous jobs of the war, to fly to Germany and bomb the war machine factories of the Nazi war effort.
Lancaster on bombing run...
They suffered the highest casualty rate of the RAF - nearly half of them - 55,000 were killed.
A Lancaster Bomber was on average only expected to survive 7 bombing raids to Germany...
Each crew had to fly 30 sorties in there tour, only 1 in 6 crews were expected to survive..
think about those odds for a minute...
These young men have been largely unrecognised for there bravery and sacrifice made due to the controversial bombing of German cites. By `De housing` its civilians when failing attempts to destroy the factories it was decided to eradicate the people who worked in them as a guaranteed way to slow and disrupt war production. shocking and sad but deemed necessary to get the results.
In the documentary Ewan visits Hamburg, the first city to suffer a firestorm and talks to survivors of both sides. The programme is eye opening to what people endured and suffered, the firestorm that engulfed the city of Dresden is still talked about today...
Dresden 1945...
The young bomber crews story has largely been overshadowed since 1945 by the Battle of Britain's few, and the later Allied invasion on D Day 1944. What those young men - just kids did is hard to imagine.
Were here today in part because of them, and must never forget about those that did not come back...
Ewan Macgregor and his brother Colin attempt to tell there story interviewing survivors and they fly in the legendary Lancaster...
Joepie, its on You Tube!!
ReplyDeleteIt was a cracker of a programme and you know what that story means to me. I thought they just about got it right.
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