'Cinderella Service' war dead to be honoured

Thousands of airmen and women who lost their lives during World War Two are to be honoured.

A total of 12,500 names of Coastal Command personnel will be added to the Losses Database at the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln on Tuesday 1 September.

Also known as the Cinderella Service, the aircrew were responsible for keeping Britain's vital sea lanes open and safe from German U-boats.

Dave Gilbert, the centre's trustee and losses archivist, said: "Behind every statistic there are men and women whose lives were cut tragically short and families whose lives were forever changed."

As well as keeping the sea lanes open alongside the Royal Navy, Coastal Command was responsible for escorting allied shipping convoys of troops, food and munitions.

The Royal Air Force Museum said Coastal Command fought and won the Battle of the Atlantic, destroying 212 German U-boats, and saved more than 10,000 lives in the RAF's air-sea rescue service.

Operations sometimes overlapped between Bomber Command and Coastal Command.

Chair of the Coastal Command Association, Graham Hillman, known in air force circles as Hector, said: "As technology improved, radar was fitted, and aircraft got longer ranges. The Battle of the Atlantic turned in the favour of the allies.

"The U-boats were being detected more often and sunk more often."

He added: "All of the flying over the ocean was not in the best of weather and many crews died not through action, but through accidents."

The centre said Coastal Command was commonly referred to as the Cinderella Service due to how it was overlooked and underfunded, with Bomber Command and Fighter Command taking priority during World War Two.

Gilbert said it was "often an isolated and lonely war" for Coastal Command crews.

He added: "More than half of those who lost their lives with Coastal Command have no known grave, an inevitable consequence of a war fought predominantly over the seas and oceans.

"Their role lacked the headline-grabbing drama of the other Commands, but in reality, it kept the war machine running and put food on the tables of our nation, making its role every bit as vital."

The centre, on Canwick Avenue, records the names of those who "paid the ultimate price in the bombing war" in the Losses Database - an online, virtual memorial.

The addition of Coastal Command aircrew personnel will bring the number of names on the memorial to more than 80,000.

Each one has information including service details, age, next of kin, and home town.

People will be able to add their own information and photographs to the entries.

The addition means the names of Coastal Command air crew who lost their lives will be easily searchable by people including ancestors and historians.

Hillman said prior to the addition of the names, there were only a few hard copies of Coastal Command losses, one kept at Westminster Abbey.

Gilbert said adding the names had taken more than 1,000 hours.

"Their stories never leave you, and those stories are what the IBCC exists to tell," he said.

"To help preserve and share those stories is the greatest privilege I could ever have been given, and one I never take for granted."

The centre hopes to secure funding to erect memorial walls for all the Coastal Command losses.

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