The 10,000 Royal Australian Air Force aircrew, ground staff and members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force who served in Bomber Command were honoured in a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on June 7. 

Members of the public and serving personnel joined veterans and their families to pay tribute to those who served and those who did not return. The Memorial’s Roll of Honour lists the 4149 RAAF personnel who died – 3539 in operational squadrons and 610 in training units.

Head of Military Strategic Planning Air Vice-Marshal John Haly delivered a commemorative address on behalf of the Chief of Air Force. He said the story of Bomber Command was not only a story of Australians but one of many nations standing together, bound together by a common danger. 

“For Australians serving in the Second World War, there was no other theatre of war more dangerous than Bomber Command,” Air Vice-Marshal Haly said. 

“A tour meant 30 missions, but the losses were so severe that, on average, crews flew only 16 before they were gone. 

“More than one in three Australians who served in Bomber Command did not come home.”

This year marks the 85th anniversary of RAAF squadrons commencing operations with the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command in World War II. At its peak in late 1944, Bomber Command operated more than 80 squadrons. 

Each year, Air Force members past and present gather at the Bomber Command Memorial in the sculpture gardens of the Australian War Memorial to remember those who gave all. 

'For Australians serving in the Second World War, there was no other theatre of war more dangerous than Bomber Command.'

Among them was Air Vice-Marshal (retd) Warren Ludwig, president of the Bomber Command Commemorative Day Foundation, which organises the ceremony each year in partnership with the Australian War Memorial.

“The foundation is committed to honour and remembering the service of Australians who served and sacrificed in Bomber Command,” Air Vice-Marshal Ludwig said. 

“Whether aircrew, ground crew or support staff, the RAAF members of RAF Bomber Command were renowned for their professionalism, courage, tenacity and achievement under the most challenging circumstances.

“The ceremony brings serving and retired Defence personnel together with relatives of Bomber Command veterans to share personal stories of what the men and women of Bomber Command achieved under such unimaginable circumstances, in a different time, with very different technology.”

Bomber Command’s story during World War II is one that Air Vice-Marshal Haly said has united people from around the world for 85 years.

“The nations who flew in those mixed crews – and the nation we once flew against – now stand here together in peace to remember,” Air Vice-Marshal Haly said. 

“The alliance that was forged in the freezing dark of a bomber’s fuselage is based on the same instinct that binds us still: that we are safer, and better, standing together than standing alone.

“That is their legacy, and our charge to keep.”