When Churchill on 20 Aug 2018 in the speech to House of Commons stated 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much been owed by so many to so few', he was paying tribute to the enormous efforts made by fighter pilots AND THE BOMBER CREWS.
https://twitter.com/AmbarishSatwik/status/1514816332633497617
The bomber crews were singled out when his speech went on to say: All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day…
… but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber sqns travel far into Germany, find tgts in the darkness by high navigational skills, aim attacks, often under heaviest fire, often with …
serious loss, deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war making infrastructure of Nazi Power.
.. On no part of the RAF does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the DAYLIGHT bombers, who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion, and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain.
This bit of speech is often forgotten after ill effects of strategic area bombing would lead even to Churchill not endorsing such use of airpower. In 1992 an RAF veterans orgn would seek to defend Bomber Harris with a statue that reads: ‘The nation owes them all an immense debt’.
Churchill used eg of success of RAF to promote confidence in the British war effort, stressing that it was better equipped for modern warfare than in the Great War with numerical strength of the army, naval command of the sea & scientific superiority in weaponry & intelligence.
The whole address may interest those historically inclined and for deeper understanding. parliament.uk/about/living-h…
The use of airpower for strategic bombing and it’s negative effects appears to elude Putin and his cdrs in the ongoing #RussiaUkraineConflict?
Sorry 20 August 1940 is the correct date of that speech and not 2018!!
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