Bomber Command honour at last

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The award of a Bomber Command clasp to add to his 1939-45 war medal has recently been made on behalf of the late Darrell Pearce Floyd. As a wireless operator/gunner on Lancaster bombers, he participated in a total of 32 raids over Germany and France in 1944/45, escaping the fate of 55,483 of his fellow airmen whose planes and lives were lost during operations against the Luftwaffe.  (One Messerschmitt pilot claimed to have destroyed over 100 British bombers.)

We can only conjecture the emotions of the airmen facing death almost daily at the hands of Luftwaffe fighters and anti-aircraft shelling. Yet recognition of Bomber Command aircrew for their bravery and unique contribution to protecting Britain during World War II has been long delayed. This is largely because, after the war, the politicians who had ordered the bombing campaign, including Winston Churchill, distanced themselves from the crews amid embarrassment at the destruction of German cities such as Dresden.

It was only in 2012, The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, that the Bomber Command Memorial was unveiled in central London– by The Queen. An independent medal review followed which led, in  February 2013,  to the announcement that the aircrew of Bomber Command should indeed receive proper recognition.

After the war, Floyd and his wife ran a bed-and-breakfast in Rye, while he also undertook architectural assignments in Bexhill. Seventy years on, he has received his clasp, delivered to his brother Barry, who joined Bomber Command nearer to the war’s end.  Like so many of his fellow crewmen, Darrell Floyd was no longer here to receive it in person.

 

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Lancaster bomber with crew prior to a raid. Floyd is 3rd from left, next to his “skipper”

 

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The author is the brother of Darrell Floyd

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