Britain's Royal Air Force is preparing to unveil a "long overdue" national memorial to Canadian aircrews that helped achieve the Allied victory in the Second World War. Above is an illustration of the planned site.
Photograph by: Canadian Air Forces Monument Project, The Ottawa Citizen
By Randy Boswell - from the Ottawa Citizen
With Canada poised to celebrate the country's birthday this week after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive from Britain, a more sombre ceremony symbolizing the deep bond between the two countries - a tribute to fallen Canadian airmen from the Second World War - is quietly taking shape in the U.K.
Britain's Royal Air Force is preparing to unveil a "long overdue" national memorial to Canadian aircrews that helped achieve the Allied victory in the Second World War - including some 10,000 RCAF personnel who lost their lives battling Germany and other Axis enemies.
The poignant, maple leaf-inspired monument to this country's air forces, made of granite cut from the Canadian Shield and transported to Britain earlier this year, is to be dedicated July 8 at the U.K.'s National Memorial Arboretum in the central English countryside.
The campaign to honour Canada was launched last year after a history-minded Royal Air Force officer observed that a Canadian tribute was "conspicuously" missing at the sprawling Midlands memorial garden.
"The arboretum already contains memorials to the Royal Australian Air Force and the Norwegian Navy," stated RAF Flight Lieut. Alfie Hall, who spearheaded the plan after a May 2010 visit to the site for a ceremony honouring British soldiers killed recently in Iraq. "But a monument to the Canadian airmen is conspicuous by its absence."
Since then, two RAF bases in Britain where Canadian aircrews were stationed during the Second World War - including Hall's own RAF Leeming - led a fundraising drive for the monument that won support from two major corporate benefactors in the U.K. and Canada, along with numerous other donors.
Michael Oliver, chairman of the British energy company Oliver Valves, signed on as the project's chief financial backer.
"It is very important that we remember the people who fought alongside Great Britain during the Second World War," Oliver has stated
No comments:
Post a Comment