Britain accused of war crimes

They came under attack as tensions over a £3.5million memorial to Bomber Command threatened to escalate into a major diplomatic row with Germany.

Britain’s insistence on building the memorial in London’s Green Park to more than 55,000 Allied airmen who died fighting the Nazis prompted a furious reaction in Dresden, where at least 25,000 people died in two days and nights of raids in 1945.

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Public support for the memorial, which has received cross-party backing from political leaders including Prime Minister David Cameron, widened in Britain yesterday.

And Royal sources said the Queen was expected to formally open the monument, which is due to be completed in 2012. But Dresden, with 517,000 inhabitants, was seething with resentment at the plans to honour the air crews who reduced one of Europe’s finest cities to dust.

The respected Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten newspaper branded the raids war crimes and asked: “Why was the RAF’s Bomber Command chief Arthur Harris never once invited to a post-war victory parade in Berlin? Why did animals who served in the Second World War get a memorial but not bomber crews?

“The answer lies in a single word – Dresden. The air strikes from February 13, 1945 lie on the conscience of the English. By February 1945 this fight against civilians began to have the taste of a war crime.

“The subject splits the British. While some set a large moral question mark about the strategy behind the fire bombings, others want to honour the heroes of Bomber Command with a memorial.”

The row escalated as the mayor of Dresden visited London to attend events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the start of the London Blitz. Mayor Helma Orosz condemned the Bomber Command memorial, saying it “would not be part of the culture of reconciliation”.

In Dresden, city fathers fear the far-Right, which marches once a year to condemn the Allied attacks as a war crime, are poised to capitalise on the outrage. The NPD party is understood to be planning an autumn protest when Robin Gibb – a keen supporter of the memorial appeal – visits the city in eastern Germany.

Gibb said the memorial honoured the dead and objectors “should be ashamed of themselves”. But he added: “It’s not our aim to commemorate the bombing of any city, including Dresden.”

Klaus Wohler, an NPD party member in Dresden, said: “The British people are being asked to honour and pay homage at a shrine to the killers of defenceless men, women and children – people who turned Dresden into soot and ash. They were nothing more than airborne pirates.” A caller to a local radio show said: “I don’t think Tommy has heard the last of this yet.”

Despite trying to sidestep the row earlier, London mayor Boris Johnson, who joined mayor Orosz and Coventry’s mayor Brian Kelsey to open a Blitz exhibition on Monday, insisted last night that it was right to honour the bravery of British bomber crews while not celebrating the destruction of Dresden. The courage and sacrifice of those who fought off the Nazis to win the Battle of Britain was remembered yesterday by 2,500 people who packed into St Paul’s Cathedral to remember the Blitz spirit.

The Duke of Kent, who refused to be drawn into the Dresden row, took the royal salute outside the cathedral after the service as air cadets and current servicemen and women joined veterans for a parade.

The Bomber Command Memorial needs to raise another £2million. To donate, please go to www.bombercommand.com.