I FEEL honoured and privileged that I have been allocated two tickets for the inauguration of the new Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London, on June 27, 2012. The memorial is finally recognition of the role of Bomber Command during the Second World War and the loss of 55,573 men, including many from Newport and Monmouthshire who through their actions helped bring the war to an earlier conclusion, and comes nearly 70 years too late. The memorial will be opened by the Queen, and my wife and I will be there representing all branches of my family and the loss of my cousin, PO Arthur Fitzgerald, from Cyril Street, Newport, who died along with the rest of his crew when the Lancaster bomber he was piloting was shot down over Germany by Hauptmann Ludwig Meister on August 28, 1943. Ludwig Meister himself died on November 26, 2011, 18 days before his 91st birthday.

Shaun McGuire, Mole Close, Bettws, Newport