Lest We Forget

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In Defence Of Our Defenders

The admirable Nutty Cow has mailed me about a campaign she thought I might be interested in. She was right - I am.

In partnership with Age Concern the Royal British Legion has lauched a crusade against poverty amongst the elderby called Return to Rationing ?

I don't normally go in for State intervention-type activities and to my mind people should be encouraged to set aside as much as they can for the years after their retirement with as little government help as possible. There are, though, some cases where a bit of quid-pro-pro wouldn't go amiss, and the conditions that some of our ex-service personnel are living in suggests that many of them are being let down.

God knows it's hard enough being in the armed forces as it is these days. You get sent into illegal and unpopular wars, serving ridiculously long tours of duty with inadequate respite in between times because you and your colleagues are stretched to the limit by a government that has continually under invested and over committed everybody involved. The nation, previously grateful to those who risk their lives for us, treats you with anything from scepticism the downright hostility because the highest profile campaigns in which you are involved have little public support. Then, when you get old, you risk not being able to heat your own home or feed yourself adequately (as does your spouse if you die in the line of duty). It is, by any measure, a raw deal.

You could argue that successive governments have failed to honour the Military Covenant but this one is especially culpable. Those brave men and women who risk their lives defending what little is left of our freedoms deserve better.

What We Owe To Those Who Fought For Us

News comes that one of the veterans who took part in one of the greatest prison camp escapes in World War II has died. Bertram "Jimmy" James has died in Shrewsbury, aged 92.

As Sqn Ldr James, he was one of the 76 men who escaped from Stalag Luft III in Poland in 1944. This event was immortalised in the film The Great Escape. Three people got home. The rest (including Sqn Ldr James) were caught. One of the main aims of this, or any other escape attempt - apart from getting home if possible - was to cause the Germans as much trouble as possible by forcing them to spend precious time, money and personnel looking for escapees rather than fighting the Allies. The escape from Stalag Luft III certainly achieved that. If anything, it was too successful. Furious at the expense and humiliation caused by a mass escape from a camp where security was supposedly unbeatable, Hitler personally ordered the cold-blooded murder of 50 re-captured prisoners.

It is impossible for us, in our warm, cosy, well-stocked homes, to imagine what Prisoners of War went through, in winter temperatures of -20, with little food or heating and the most basic of facilities. The Great Escape cannot portray the hardship of freezing conditions and 80 prisoners to a block. It doesn't record that there was thick snow on the ground on the night of the escape. It does, however, give some idea of the ingenuity that was used in planning the escape; the remorseless search for wood to shore up the tunnels (above), the underground railway with its stations, the electric light tapped from the Third Reich, and the brilliant methods for getting rid of dirt from the tunnels.

It will not be so very long before Bertram "Jimmy" James's generation has gone altogether. Going it might be, but it must never, ever, be forgotten. The period of 1939-45 was a time when this country stood, sometimes alone, for freedom and democracy and all the other values we hold close to our hearts in the face of a terrible and seemingly relentless onslaught from people who wanted to destroy us. People like Bertram James, and millions like him, displayed valour, defiance and a sheer refusal to give in despite what sometimes appeared to be impossible odds. Together, they represented the iron will and spirit that saw this country through. My generation and all those that follow owe them a colossal, immeasurable debt.

..........................Memorial to "The Fifty" at Stalag Luft III

Sometimes when I look at today's society I wonder if the wartime generation ponder whether it was all worth it. The lack of respect shown by so many, the increasing levels of crime and disorder, the breakdown of the family, the feeling that many older people have that it is simply not safe to go out of their houses. Do they ever think "Why did we bother ?" ? With all my heart, I hope they do not.

I believe that we owe Bertram James and his generation this at least: to do all we can to pass on the values of respect, decency and freedom to those around us, and to prevent tyranny, in any form, over-running this country. To leave our nation at least as free as we were when we entered it.

That would be a fitting tribute to many a hero.