Vegas
04-18-2007, 08:11 PM
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=d367a0b7-7c1e-4cda-bc4e-983105562d88&k=40679
OTTAWA (CP) - Veterans are taking on the Canadian War Museum over an exhibit which they say labels wartime bomber crews as war criminals - a move reminiscent of their crusade more than a decade ago against the CBC series The Valour and the Horror.
They've chosen the same forum to fight their case: the Senate subcommittee on veterans' affairs.
Representatives from the Royal Canadian Legion, the Air Force Association and the Aircrew Association asked the senators on Thursday to help them get the museum display rewritten.
Along the way, they described museum officials as "grossly unfair," "judgmental," "arrogant," and "morally biased."
The museum has said its happy with the display and won't make any changes. Museum officials are to appear before the subcommittee in two weeks to give their side.
At issue is a display board and a couple of pictures.
The board says: "The value and morality of the strategic bomber offensive against Germany remains bitterly contested. Bomber Command's aim was to crush civilian morale and force Germany to surrender by destroying its cities and industrial installations. Although Bomber Command and American attacks left 600,000 Germans dead and more than five million homeless, the raids resulted in only small reductions in German war production until late in the war."
The photos show dead Germans amid the ruins.
In a way, the vets see themselves defending the honour of comrades who died more than 60 years ago.
"Why do the museum officials hype this statement except to reinforce the implication that Bomber Command aircrew were guilty of war crimes?" asked Donald Elliott, a 90-year-old airman who was shot down over Germany during a bombing raid and spent more than three years in prison camps.
He said the offending panel and photos imply that the airmen "had been party to the commission of a moral crime. Veterans see it as a bitter insult."
Bill Carr, a Second World War reconnaissance pilot who eventually retired as a lieutenant general, called the wording: "a judgment call which suggests those who were involved were acting immorally and were nothing short of being war criminals to drop bombs to kill 'innocent' civilians."
"In this choice of words, it is obvious that officials decided subjectively to decry the bombing campaign based primarily on their own concepts of morality and their ignorance of wartime reality."
The veterans agree the bombing campaign has been the subject of debate for years. But they say the museum isn't neutral in the debate and has decided against the flyers.
The vets said they tried to meet museum officials to discuss a compromise in the wording and were flatly rebuffed. They said the museum enlisted four distinguished historians to comment on the exhibit. Two said it was fine, two said it should be changed.
David Bercuson of the University of Calgary said he found the offending paragraph "takes a side in the controversy and can be taken to imply that the bombing was a waste of resources and 'innocent' human life."
But Desmond Morton of McGill University said: "As I read the panel, it records and illustrates an irrefutable fact: there is a controversy."
Taking that out "because of pressure-group intervention would qualify as a suppression of historical fact," Morton said.
The vets told the senators that the exhibit glosses over details such as the horrendous losses suffered by bomber crews - their chance of making it through a tour of 30 operations was one in four - and the contributions they made to the final victory.
They may have won at least one supporter. Senator Romeo Dallaire, a retired general who is no stranger to controversy and harsh accusations, said he found "an accusatory tone" in the exhibit. He said he wants to hear when the museum has to say next week.
The campaign against The Valour and the Horror ended in a sort of draw. The CBC agreed not to rebroadcast the series in its original form, but it stayed on the National Film Board shelves. A libel suit brought by veterans was thrown out of court and the filmmakers won a number of awards.
The Allied bombing campaign against Germany stretched out over almost six years and took a terrible toll on both sides. The Allies dropped almost two million tonnes of bombs on Europe. The cores of many German cities were reduced to burned-out rubble. Devastation was measured in hectares. Hundreds of thousands died.
The flyers paid their own high price. More than 20,000 bombers were shot down. About 82,000 airmen were killed, including almost 10,000 Canadians.
For most of the campaign, German armament production rose steadily, despite the devastation. However, most historians agree that Germany was forced to assign hundreds of thousands of men and thousands of guns to fight the bombers. They also expended much of the dwindling strength of their air force against the bombers.
In the dying days of the war, the bombers concentrated on the German fuel system, essentially starving the war machine of its life blood.
OTTAWA (CP) - Veterans are taking on the Canadian War Museum over an exhibit which they say labels wartime bomber crews as war criminals - a move reminiscent of their crusade more than a decade ago against the CBC series The Valour and the Horror.
They've chosen the same forum to fight their case: the Senate subcommittee on veterans' affairs.
Representatives from the Royal Canadian Legion, the Air Force Association and the Aircrew Association asked the senators on Thursday to help them get the museum display rewritten.
Along the way, they described museum officials as "grossly unfair," "judgmental," "arrogant," and "morally biased."
The museum has said its happy with the display and won't make any changes. Museum officials are to appear before the subcommittee in two weeks to give their side.
At issue is a display board and a couple of pictures.
The board says: "The value and morality of the strategic bomber offensive against Germany remains bitterly contested. Bomber Command's aim was to crush civilian morale and force Germany to surrender by destroying its cities and industrial installations. Although Bomber Command and American attacks left 600,000 Germans dead and more than five million homeless, the raids resulted in only small reductions in German war production until late in the war."
The photos show dead Germans amid the ruins.
In a way, the vets see themselves defending the honour of comrades who died more than 60 years ago.
"Why do the museum officials hype this statement except to reinforce the implication that Bomber Command aircrew were guilty of war crimes?" asked Donald Elliott, a 90-year-old airman who was shot down over Germany during a bombing raid and spent more than three years in prison camps.
He said the offending panel and photos imply that the airmen "had been party to the commission of a moral crime. Veterans see it as a bitter insult."
Bill Carr, a Second World War reconnaissance pilot who eventually retired as a lieutenant general, called the wording: "a judgment call which suggests those who were involved were acting immorally and were nothing short of being war criminals to drop bombs to kill 'innocent' civilians."
"In this choice of words, it is obvious that officials decided subjectively to decry the bombing campaign based primarily on their own concepts of morality and their ignorance of wartime reality."
The veterans agree the bombing campaign has been the subject of debate for years. But they say the museum isn't neutral in the debate and has decided against the flyers.
The vets said they tried to meet museum officials to discuss a compromise in the wording and were flatly rebuffed. They said the museum enlisted four distinguished historians to comment on the exhibit. Two said it was fine, two said it should be changed.
David Bercuson of the University of Calgary said he found the offending paragraph "takes a side in the controversy and can be taken to imply that the bombing was a waste of resources and 'innocent' human life."
But Desmond Morton of McGill University said: "As I read the panel, it records and illustrates an irrefutable fact: there is a controversy."
Taking that out "because of pressure-group intervention would qualify as a suppression of historical fact," Morton said.
The vets told the senators that the exhibit glosses over details such as the horrendous losses suffered by bomber crews - their chance of making it through a tour of 30 operations was one in four - and the contributions they made to the final victory.
They may have won at least one supporter. Senator Romeo Dallaire, a retired general who is no stranger to controversy and harsh accusations, said he found "an accusatory tone" in the exhibit. He said he wants to hear when the museum has to say next week.
The campaign against The Valour and the Horror ended in a sort of draw. The CBC agreed not to rebroadcast the series in its original form, but it stayed on the National Film Board shelves. A libel suit brought by veterans was thrown out of court and the filmmakers won a number of awards.
The Allied bombing campaign against Germany stretched out over almost six years and took a terrible toll on both sides. The Allies dropped almost two million tonnes of bombs on Europe. The cores of many German cities were reduced to burned-out rubble. Devastation was measured in hectares. Hundreds of thousands died.
The flyers paid their own high price. More than 20,000 bombers were shot down. About 82,000 airmen were killed, including almost 10,000 Canadians.
For most of the campaign, German armament production rose steadily, despite the devastation. However, most historians agree that Germany was forced to assign hundreds of thousands of men and thousands of guns to fight the bombers. They also expended much of the dwindling strength of their air force against the bombers.
In the dying days of the war, the bombers concentrated on the German fuel system, essentially starving the war machine of its life blood.