Letters to David
Irving on this Website
Stuart
L.relates what his father, an officer in 617 Squadron, RAF
Bomber Command, told him about their much-fabled commander Guy Gibson
Guy
Gibson VC, centre, with his men of 617 Squadron,
the “Dambusters”
Was
Dambuster Guy Gibson, VC, an unpopular commander?
[Guy Gibson VC] ON the subject of Guy Gibson, you might be interested in an incident recounted to me by my late father, who served in Bomber Command during the war.
After completing two tours of duty as part of the bombing campaign against German cities, my father’s crew were transferred to 617 Squadron sometime after Gibson went missing in action.
He told me that on entering the mess for the first time he saw one of the pictures that hung there was turned to face the wall, and on enquiring who this was he was surprised to learn it was
Gibson’s photograph.
It was clear to him from the respondent’s demeanour that Gibson was not well liked, but the precise reasons were not explained to him. My father rarely talked about his wartime experiences, but remained certain of the necessity for the bombing campaign, and when he did discuss this period of his life he was unapologetic about the actions of Bomber Command.
-
Dying British airman admitted in 1992: Shot
down, killed Dambusters hero Guy Gibson in 1944
by mistake – RAF covered it up
Prestigious
actor Stephen Fry chooses to alter history: in
his newDambusters film script, the faithful
. – Why not Tigger,
black Labrador “Nigger” of hero Guy Gibson VC
(right) is renamed Digger
or Snigger – or even more appropriately in
Stephen Fry’s case, B*gger? As Churchill said
about Tom Driberg MP: “B*ggers can’t be
Choosers” | BBC
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David Irving replies:
THANK you so much for your letter, Stuart, I have just rewritten my
1973 book on the Dams raid. Can’t deny the stoic heroism of guys like your father – I met and spoke with quite a lot in the early 1960s. The odds of survival were very heavily stacked against them.
I also met Bomber Harris in 1962 and interviewed him a couple of times (right), and he wrote me a wonderful handwritten letter of praise as an historian — the only one he would trust in future, he said. I must dig it out and put it on my website.
PS:
In the Himmler biography which I am writing now (15
years’ work so far), is en episode one of his adjutants told me: Himmler entered the Mess of the
Leibstandarte a year after Rudolf
Hess had flown to Scotland; found that the portrait of Hess had been discreetly turned to face the wall, and ordered it turned back the right way again, making a complimentary remark about Hess’s fine character.