A THURROCK veteran of the Second World War has been honoured by friends and associates with the presentation of a Bomber Command medal, 77 years after he last walked away from his cramped position as rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber.

At a meeting of Thurrock RAF Association's 'full members night' this week the club's president Jim Gooding, of Hogarth Road, Grays, was honoured for his service. Nick-named as 'Tail-end Charlies', a rear gunner in a World War Two bomber plane was the most dangerous job in the most dangerous part of the UK's armed forces.

Though campaign medals for individual services and campaigns were issued after the war, no official special mention for general service was ever given to members of Bomber Command.

Their exploits were perceived by some to represent a darker side of the war, and bombing – which inevitably was likely to cause civilian casualties - became something of a debating point.

Regardless of that, the bravery of the crews who flew the missions was never in doubt.

During the course of the war, 125,000 aircrew of Bomber Command carried out a total of 366,514 sorties, of which 297,663 were by night. On those operations, 55,573 pilots and crew were killed.

A Lancaster Bomber.

10,999 members of Bomber Command were taken prisoner of war, and 8,403 were wounded in action. As many as a thousand evaded capture after being shot down, most of them making their way back to Britain, to fly again.

The scale of the achievement of these brave men was expressed in 1945 by Winston Churchill, when he wrote to Sir Arthur Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Bomber Command from February 1942, saying: 'All your operations were planned with great care and skill. They were executed in the face of desperate opposition and appalling hazards, they made a decisive contribution to Germany's final defeat. 

"The conduct of the operations demonstrated the fiery gallant spirit which animated your aircrews, and the high sense of duty of all ranks under your command. I believe that the massive achievements of Bomber Command will long be remembered as an example of duty nobly done."

A Bomber Command crew member had a worse chance of survival than an infantry officer in World War I; more people were killed serving in Bomber Command than in the Blitz, or the bombings of Hamburg or Dresden – missions which actually were condemned in hindsight as too brutal and indiscriminate by critics of the bombing campaign. They became the focal point for the cause célèbre against issuing an official medal and relegating Bomber Command to the back pages of history.

The strategic bombing offensive against Germany became epitomised by the firestorm that engulfed Dresden in February 1945, causing the deaths of 25,000 civilians. In the wake of that the men of Bomber Command had to pay the price for official embarrassment over the aerial assault on the Reich, even though this policy played a vital role in breaking the Nazi war machine and winning the war.

The decision not to award a medal for all members of Bomber Command occurred during the short gap between the wartime coalition and Clement Attlee's Labour Government, whilst Churchill was still PM. This caused Harris to turn down Attlee's subsequent offer of a peerage in protest at this snub; a principled stand which Harris had taken, and declared, at the time the decision not to award a separate campaign medal was made.

The Command's raids had tied up huge amounts of Germany's defensive resources - which might have been diverted to the Eastern and Western Fronts and elsewhere - and the physical destruction of war material was considerable. Nevertheless, Churchill, much to Harris's chagrin, made virtually no mention of Bomber Command's campaign in his victory speech on VE day.

For decades a campaign was waged to get an official medal struck for Bomber Command. Even as the number of flying veterans diminished year on year efforts continued to seek official recognition.

Like all who served, air crew and pilots did receive the War Medal for service between 3 September 1939 and 2 September 1945). The only qualification for award of this medal was that they must have served at least 28 days irrespective of whether they were operational or non-operational.

Rear gunners were in a perilous position.

And not all Bomber Command crews went unrecognised. In addition to the War Medal, they could be eligible for several campaign and service medals; the 1939-45 Star, the Aircrew Europe Star, for example, presented to those who undertook at least two months operational flying from UK bases up to June 1944; or the France and Germany Star, for operations over the continent in the last year of the war.

In 2012, those brave men were also given the right to wear a Bomber Command clasp on their ribbon, similar to the Battle of Britain clasp for Fighter Command pilots. In a move backed by the Queen, the PM David Cameron's approval of the decision was the first official recognition of Bomber Command general service.

Recognition has further been made in other ways, like the creation of the poignant Bomber Command memorial at Hyde Park, or the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincolnshire.

Sixteen years ago it was decided to create a non-official medal. A competition was held in a magazine to design a medal for Bomber Command, which merged with RAF Fighter Command in 1968 to form Strike Command. The idea was to mint a small number of medals and no more.

The first medal minted was taken off the mint by Lady Jill Harris the widow of Sir Arthur Harris who before his death in 1984 gave his permission and full backing to an unofficial medal being minted. The second medal was taken off the mint by Don Bennett the wartime leader of the Pathfinder Force which led bombing missions.

There were no thoughts of minting any further medals until the word got out and a request from ex-Bomber Command aircrew and ground crew, whose service was hugely important, was received to make the medal available for all those that had served in Bomber Command. Funds from sales of the medal goes to Bomber Command causes. The medal, which costs £54.50, comes with a ribbon ready to wear and in a fitted case.

Many thousands have been sold, often to families of pilots and crew who had passed away. But, as in the case of Mr Gooding, who recently passed his 97th birthday it was an opportunity to recognise those who served and are still with us.

The cost of Mr Gooding's medal was met by the local RAF Association branch