One subject about which we hope pupils will always be taught is the Blitz, which began in London 70 years ago this week. The ‘spirit of the Blitz’ may have been over-romanticised, but it is right that the brave determination with which Britons faced the aerial assault remains a source of national pride.
But British courage is perhaps not best recalled by the proposed new memorial to the airmen of Bomber Command in London’s Green Park. While no one can doubt that we are deeply indebted to the 55,573 who lost their lives, and who are already remembered at the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede, there is a good reason why a memorial specifically dedicated to Bomber Command was not built after the war. The Allied air assault on Germany, in particular on Dresden, is a deeply controversial subject. This week, Helma Orosz, the mayor of Dresden, has called for the planned memorial to be scrapped, complaining that it would ‘not be part of the culture of reconciliation’.
She has a point. The targeting of civilians is a military tactic that we hope never to repeat. Such was the gravity of the Nazi threat that the decisions of our war leaders then should not be judged by the standards of today. But at a time when our forces in Afghanistan are taking such care to avoid civilian casualties, it seems wrong to erect a memorial to our flattening of Germany’s cities.
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