Baylon Watts – London

While standing in front of the Bomber Command Memorial, I was impressed with the architecture and cleanliness of the statues and the rest of the memorial. Initially, it seemed to me that the central statue portrayed seven British airmen as heroic and noble defenders of their homeland. As I learned from my classmate who reported on the memorial, however, the memorial has a more complex story. While thousands of these airmen lost their lives fighting bravely for their country, they inflicted similar damage on the homes of others as had been done to their own during the Blitz. The Bomber Command Memorial does not acknowledge this complexity as it purely focuses on the mourning of the loved ones who were lost. This reveals much about British postwar memory as it does about the actual events. It wasn’t until 2012 that Queen Elizabeth II unveiled this statue, emphasizing the amount of time needed to pass to properly remember these loved ones in the wake of controversy.

This trend continued as I explored the depths of the Churchill War Rooms. Here, the various preserved rooms where the wartime cabinet lived daily helped paint the picture of the honorable events that took place, as high-ranking staff worked around the clock in subpar conditions for the good of their country. However, as another classmate mentioned, Churchill lived a very complicated and controversial political life, which was only just lightly touched on. This approach isn’t unique to the Churchill War Rooms, as it is common in many British national museums to prioritize legacy over reflection.

Together, these sites teach history and show how Britain has chosen to remember and represent that history. Some other examples of this during World War II include the “myth of the Blitz” and the “Dunkirk spirit”. These narratives focus on British resilience and sacrifice while overlooking uncomfortable truths. Rather than focusing on controversy, Britain wants their fallen ones, world leaders, and other contributors to the cause to be primarily remembered for the good that they did. bombermemorial