Memories - Past and Current

Anzac Day is always special in our household as we remember all those who served in wars. It is especially personal as we also remember my Dad and our girls remember their Pa. I am so very proud of his contribution as an Australian member of 582 Squadron based in Little Staughton. Dad was a navigator with the Pathfinder Force, Bomber Command. He always told me survival rate flying in the Lancaster was usually 5 operations and he performed 55 (some 'unofficial"), so he was very lucky to have survived. The last raid over Pforzheim must have been a great burden to carry all his life especially with the losses.

According to Wikipedia: "The Pathfinders were a group of elite, specially trained and experienced crews who flew ahead and with the main bombing forces, and marked the targets with flares and special marker-bombs. Bomber Command crews also suffered an extremely high casualty rate: 55,573 killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4% death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war."

It is so wonderful that finally there is to be a memorial to recognise the 55,573 men of Bomber Command who lost their lives in World War II. It will be completed in London in June of this year and I hope I can visit it when we are in the UK later this year. Sadly many of those who survived have now passed away like my Dad and they will never know of this new memorial. You can read more here; Bomber Command Memorial.

On a lighter note it has been a week of quilting pleasure. I had the wonderful opportunity of helping Faye in two Mystery Quilt workshops. Go over to the Bedford Mystery Quilt blog for photos of our great time!

In a few days I will share some more lovely quilt photos that have been emailed to me during the week - for now an 'update' of another!!

Have a great week X