Ralf Roggeveen
December 12th, 2008, 22:00
No doubt everybody within range of a transmitter in NW Europe saw the RAF at 90 programme on BBC2 last night. Quite apart from the fact that they might have bothered to show it in April, when the RAF was 90, this proved pretty disappointing. There were some good film extracts, particularly of Operation Grapple in 1957 when the first British H-Bomb was tested. Unfortunately this was shown merely as part of a rather crude attempt by the makers of this unbalanced documentary to suggest that the RAF was generally a horrid thing that had spent nearly a century going round bombing innocents. Some filmclips that were show (unattributed) were indeed made by Dr Goebbels.
A little bit of analysis of the Great War, Royal Flying Corps and RNAS might not have come amiss. They didn't bother with that, but launched straight into 'Policing the Empire' in the '20s and '30s, which, of course, enabled them to show archive footage of Westland Wapiris bombing mud huts in - oh obvious IRONY - Iraq! For one glorious moment I believe we saw a Blackburn Blackburn in flight, but the only piece of historic hardware that was ever actually named was a Lancaster, i.e. something that even the thickest nitwit watching might just have heard of. A few veterans spoke, some of the most interesting having been recorded a long time ago. There were also dewey-eyed modern pilots, including that John Peters (I think that's his name) who was shot down in a Tornado in the First Gulf War and has obviously been badly effected by the experience, becoming a tool of the media as a result. He looked throughout like a child talking about looking forward to Santa's visit on Christmas Day; but was basically edited to constantly repeat the programme's 'message' that wars are horrid and people get hurt; it's not just pretty aeroplanes making patterns in the sky.
There was a lot about the WW2 Bomber Offensive, including quotes from Sir Arthur Harris who, although everything that he said was true and right when it came to destroying nazism, comes across as a gruff, unsubtle and unsympathetic character. The Goebbels film showed the aftermath of an RAF raid on Berlin with German civilians, notably an attractive, well-dressed young lady, being shown corpses in the street. A revolting and crude piece of propaganda from a revolting and evil regime; not explained or analysed in this programme, merely shown to make the same 'point' that Dr G was making.
The best thing, however, was when they did show that the Dutch at least appreciate what bombing nazis was really about. There was moving film of the Dutch memorial to Bomber Command with men, women and children of all ages, including RAF veteran guests, commemorating the bravery and achievement of the RAF. It was pointed out that there is no memorial to Bomber Command in the UK (though there is now a statue of Sir Arthur Harris at St Clements Danes, the RAF church in London).
So what we got was not a history of the Royal Air Force, but instead a sort of sniggery CND reunion for a group of media folk whose own comfortable lives are, in fact, directly attributable to what their grandparents (aged about 19 at the time) heroically achieved. I could go on, but must get ready for work now. What did the rest of you think?
A little bit of analysis of the Great War, Royal Flying Corps and RNAS might not have come amiss. They didn't bother with that, but launched straight into 'Policing the Empire' in the '20s and '30s, which, of course, enabled them to show archive footage of Westland Wapiris bombing mud huts in - oh obvious IRONY - Iraq! For one glorious moment I believe we saw a Blackburn Blackburn in flight, but the only piece of historic hardware that was ever actually named was a Lancaster, i.e. something that even the thickest nitwit watching might just have heard of. A few veterans spoke, some of the most interesting having been recorded a long time ago. There were also dewey-eyed modern pilots, including that John Peters (I think that's his name) who was shot down in a Tornado in the First Gulf War and has obviously been badly effected by the experience, becoming a tool of the media as a result. He looked throughout like a child talking about looking forward to Santa's visit on Christmas Day; but was basically edited to constantly repeat the programme's 'message' that wars are horrid and people get hurt; it's not just pretty aeroplanes making patterns in the sky.
There was a lot about the WW2 Bomber Offensive, including quotes from Sir Arthur Harris who, although everything that he said was true and right when it came to destroying nazism, comes across as a gruff, unsubtle and unsympathetic character. The Goebbels film showed the aftermath of an RAF raid on Berlin with German civilians, notably an attractive, well-dressed young lady, being shown corpses in the street. A revolting and crude piece of propaganda from a revolting and evil regime; not explained or analysed in this programme, merely shown to make the same 'point' that Dr G was making.
The best thing, however, was when they did show that the Dutch at least appreciate what bombing nazis was really about. There was moving film of the Dutch memorial to Bomber Command with men, women and children of all ages, including RAF veteran guests, commemorating the bravery and achievement of the RAF. It was pointed out that there is no memorial to Bomber Command in the UK (though there is now a statue of Sir Arthur Harris at St Clements Danes, the RAF church in London).
So what we got was not a history of the Royal Air Force, but instead a sort of sniggery CND reunion for a group of media folk whose own comfortable lives are, in fact, directly attributable to what their grandparents (aged about 19 at the time) heroically achieved. I could go on, but must get ready for work now. What did the rest of you think?