The Final Betrayal: How ministers have left Bomber Command veterans with a bill that could ruin them

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It was scandalous that it took decades to give Bomber Command - half of whose men lost their lives - the memorial it deserved. Now ministers have left  war veterans with a bill that could ruin them.

Just as grizzled old hippies still bang on about 1967 and the ‘Summer of Love’, I dare say that, many years hence, we’ll all still be harking back to 2012 as the great ‘Summer of Ceremonies’. 

Put together all the concerts and parades for the Diamond Jubilee followed by that quartet of Olympic and Paralympic opening and closing shows and there has never been a year of such great British showmanship.

Sandwiched between all the royal celebrations and the sport, however, was another event which, in some ways, was more stirring than all of them.

Remembered: The 55,573 who died in the service of Bomber Command were finally granted a proper memorial

Royal presence: Almost every member of the Royal Family turned up to show their respects to our war heroes

It didn’t make global headlines, although it was televised across Britain and several Commonwealth countries. And it didn’t feature Sir Paul McCartney (although one or two pop legends were involved). 

But, as with all the other great occasions of 2012, the Queen was there. Indeed, such was the importance of the event that virtually every member of the Royal Family turned out. But by far the most important aspect of the day was that a very great debt was finally acknowledged. 

Having been disgracefully ignored by successive governments for more than half a century, the 55,573 who died in the service of Bomber Command were finally granted a proper memorial, slap bang in the heart of the capital.

Respect: Thousands of veterans, widows and fatherless children gathered on the edge of Green Park and Hyde Park Corner to see the Queen unveil Liam O'Connor's brilliantly evocative statue

The bravery of Bomber Command can be summed up by a single, miserable statistic: almost half did not survive the war. No other unit could claim such a deplorable life expectancy. They’d have been safer sitting at home playing Russian roulette with a loaded pistol.

So what a day it was on June  28 when thousands of veterans, widows and fatherless children gathered on the edge of Green Park and Hyde Park Corner to see the Queen unveil Liam O’Connor’s brilliantly evocative statue of a larger-than-life Lancaster crew, beneath a roof created from the remains of a downed Halifax bomber. 

It has subsequently become a major tourist attraction in its own right.

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Many I met that day were quite speechless with emotion. And having gone through long years of tin-rattling and constant bureaucratic hurdles to raise the £6.5 million needed to build the thing, the trustees of the Bomber Command Association could justly reflect that they had done their bit for all those young men who gave their lives in the skies over occupied Europe.

Now, however, they face a new challenge which is, perhaps, more scandalous than anything that’s preceded it. It may be nothing compared to flak and night fighters over the Rhine. But it’s enough to keep some of them awake at night with anxiety and anger. For the bills are now coming in for that opening ceremony — a whopping £827,000 in total. 

Donations have gone only so far in solving the problem. And following what is either a shambles or some shameful buck-passing in Whitehall, the eight trustees of the memorial fund — including three Bomber Command veterans — remain liable for £550,000 of that. 

Unless funds are forthcoming, they risk losing their homes to pay for it.

‘It is rather shattering, having raised the money for the memorial, that we’re on the line for this,’ says Gordon Mellor, 92, from Wembley, London.

Heroes: The bravery of Bomber Command can be summed up by a single, miserable statistic - almost half did not survive the war

Under construction: The trustees of the Bomber Command Association could justly reflect that they had done their bit by raising the £6.5 million to build the memorial

He’s known worse, of course. Tomorrow happens to be the 70th anniversary of the day he was shot down over Maastricht (he evaded capture and made it home via Gibraltar). 

His fellow trustee, Harry Irons, of Romford, Essex, is equally cross. ‘We did our bit getting  £6.5 million for the memorial,’ he says. ‘Now we’ve been let down.’ 

Is he worried about losing his home? ‘I don’t worry. I did all my worrying in the war,’ says the former tail-gunner, who clocked up a near-miraculous 60 sorties unscathed. ‘I suppose they might try to repossess my house, but they’ll have a job. I’m still a bit lively you know.’

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How on earth has it come to this? How can a Government that gladly found a last-minute £41  million top-up for those Olympic opening ceremonies begrudge 2 per cent of that sum for another opening ceremony of even greater significance? 

And in a week when civil servants have blown another £40  million on a completely botched tendering process for the West Coast Main Line, can we expect anyone in government to shoulder any personal liability? 

The question is too absurd to require an answer.

The story of this memorial is a classic of noble amateurs versus the lumbering behemoth of government. 

All along the way, the Bomber boys have had to counter the time-honoured liberal view that there should be no such memorial because of the colossal damage which Bomber Command inflicted on German civilians during the war.

World War 2 veterans and their families arrive for the unveiling of the RAF Bomber Command Memorial

Never mind that these young men were simply doing what Britain demanded of them,  and suffered appalling casualties themselves. 

There was — and still is — a view that they are an embarrassment. One look at the interminable planning saga at Westminster City Council which eventually approved the memorial is testament to that.

Trustees, led by the late Robin Gibb of Bee Gees fame, were undaunted. With help from philanthropists and thousands of ordinary well-wishers (but not the lottery or state), they raised enough to build their memorial. 

Then came the opening. Having been promised adequate government funds to support what was unquestionably a state occasion, the trustees suffered several setbacks. 

The first was that, having expected 3,500 to want tickets, the organisers ended up with 10,000 deserving applications (and did their level best to accommodate most). 

Inevitably, the budget spiralled. Then there were Olympic pressures. The Games not only imposed strict timing deadlines on a site which lay in the path of several Olympic events but all the necessary kit — grandstands, portable loos and so on — were in short supply and thus came at a premium. The bill for the sound system alone came to a mind-boggling £50,000. 

Crucially, the trustees say that they received a ministerial pledge of £250,000 of help from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and an assurance that matching funds would be forthcoming from the Ministry of Defence. 

In the event, the DCMS provided £200,000, but an MoD spokesman says it was not party to any such agreement, and provided staff support and a fly-past worth £375,000 instead.

Two months ago, the chairman of the association, Air Commodore Malcolm White, wrote to the Prime Minister asking for help. As of last night, he had received no reply. 

Now the final demands from creditors are landing and it’s getting desperate.

Sandwiched between all the celebrations this summer, the memorial opening was perhaps more stirring than all of them

A Downing Street spokesman tells me that a letter is on its way, but it’s not good news. The Government position is that the memorial has benefited from VAT exemption, operational assistance, a fly-past and the DCMS grant of £200,000. They say that nothing more will  be forthcoming.

Now let us set aside the debate of who said what to whom in advance of the ceremony. Why was it ever necessary for a charity to finance a one-off state occasion of such magnitude? 

There are some moments when governments should simply know what is right, whatever the precedent or the rule book.

Look at the governments of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, for example, all nations which lost many young men in Bomber Command.

The sun shone on Green Park as the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles embraced the occasion

They not only chipped in to the construction of the memorial, they also flew their surviving veterans across the world (with doctors in attendance) to attend the opening ceremony. British veterans, by contrast, did not receive so much as a train fare (although it should be noted that London’s taxi drivers collectively agreed to give any veteran free passage all day).

I daresay the memorial trustees are not as slick as professional event organisers, and may have underestimated the scale of the occasion they had created. 

But so what? Is it not a good thing that an important unveiling was elevated to a great national event? 

The surviving boys of Bomber Command — and all those who still mourn the fallen — finally thought Britain had recognised its debt on that day in June. Let’s not leave them saddled with yet another one.

After all, we know that there are enough Whitehall slush funds to cope with moronic Civil Service transport blunders — or Olympic opening ceremonies.

Maybe the Bomber boys should just have hired Danny Boyle.

Donations to: Bomber Command Memorial Fund  c/o RAF Museum, London, NW9 5LL.