A welcome sight: Lincoln Cathedral
A view of Lincoln Cathedral from the ramparts of Lincoln Castle
A news item at the end of August 2006 reported the dedication of a new Memorial to the thousands of airmen of RAF Bomber Command who lost their lives during the Second World War. Many former veterans of Bomber Command, relatives and friends attended the Service of Dedication at Lincoln Cathedral. Apparently, with a number of WW2 Bomber Command airfields being based in Lincolnshire, when airmen saw Lincoln Cathedral while returning to base meant they had survived another mission. .
In May 2005, which by coincidence was the 60th anniversary of V.E.Day, I was staying with relatives who live in Lincolnshire. Among the places we visited in the interesting and historic city of Linclon were its Cathedral and its Castle. Among the historic items we saw was one of the remaining examples of the Magna Carta from the reign of King John. I took this photograph of Lincoln Cathedral from the ramparts of the Castle on Saturday 7 May 2005. Lincoln Cathedral was a welcome sight for the airmen of Bomber Command and must still bring back many memories to former veterans to whom it meant so much. The view of the Cathedral is still an impressive one.
posted by ritsonvaljos at 11:44 pm
4 Comments:
The memorial was long overdue.
As some of you know, I live in Lincoln. Click here for further shots of the cathedral and Lincoln.
I had watched the Songs of Praise from the Cathedral and in the following news was the story of the Memorial. As Peter says long overdue.
The East of England during the war was one huge Aerodrome. In our area alone there were ten and I visited most of them with my Father delivering runway materials.
They were all Bomber dromes and one or two still exist but with other uses.
I saw some of those planes come back and the crews taken out of them badly wounded or dead.
I suppose I as a young lad gaped wondering how on earth they had managed to get back home at all the state of the planes.
So many made it home then crashed on landing, that was heartbreaking.
The recognition should have come many years ago, it is disgusting that people still say they were wrong to do what they did.
Does that go for every person who ever fired a shot in anger or is it just the Brave Crews who lost so many of their fellow crews.
As with all forces they had to do as they were ordered so if people question some of the tactics that is not the fault of those brave crewmen who had to do the bombing.
Frank -
we shall always have the "gutless
buggers" as Monty called them who think that all war is wrong but would do nothing if they were attacked - these people should really be overrun as the Viennese people were in '45 by the Russians- that might make them want to fight !
Although I said that the Lincoln Cathedral memorial stone was long overdue, one aught not to forget the imposing RAF Memorial at Runnymede to fighter and bomber crews lost without trace.
I visited it several times when I lived near Heathrow; it was always a very moving experience.
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