On Thursday the Bomber Command Memorial will be unveiled by the Queen as a lasting memorial to the 55,573 men who were killed during the Second World War.

Winston Churchill, during his Address of Thanks in the House of Commons to all the participants of the war, totally ignored the men of Bomber Command and the vital work they had done in taking the war to Nazi Germany, choosing instead to distance himself from the “Orders to Bomb Germany” he had instructed AM Arthur Harris to pass on to his men.

This political shying away has gone on ever since. Fortunately now, when it is nearly too, the memorial has been built.

The County of Lincolnshire is often referred to as “The Bomber County” but Yorkshire had nearly thirty Bomber Command airfields all round York, most of which were returned to the farmland they were before the airfields were built.

I well remember as a boy hearing the incessant throb of bombers flying overhead as they formed up before heading east.

If any reader knows any of these veterans from Bomber Command, shake them by the hand and thank them for what they did.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge.