Jerry Takes a Pasting

I have reverted to 10 years old and made a print of a Lancaster bomber teaching the krauts a lesson.  Or not actually.  I think it’s actually being taught rather a difficult lesson.  Being caught in a searchlight was a terrifying and often terminal experience for many young men in the 1940s.  Aircrew in RAF bomber command had the worst survival prospects of any allied service in world war 2 – statistically death or capture was a certainty, with a one in 20 chance of being downed on a mission and 30 missions in a tour of duty.  Survival was exceptional.

The fact that their heroic deeds were often of marginal military value and terrible moral value adds an awful pathos to their heroism.  This picture is dedicated to their heroism in war and (for the survivors) herosim in living with the brickbats ever since.