Page 54 - Derek Braithet Holland

© IWM

Derek dressed like this would have joined the throng of airmen boarding RAF motor transport at a
railway station in London, bound for 100 Personnel Despatch Centre at Uxbridge, Middlesex, for
demobilisation. Derek would have on arrival at 100 PDC been informed that it was RAF policy to
reduce in rank all Warrant Officers and Flight Sergeants to Airman. The reason was that aircrew
ranks were higher than ground crew and the RAF wanted to ensure ground crew senior NCO’s
could retain discipline; even if these ground crew NCO’s had never had a shot fired at them in
anger. This humiliation combined with the Government refusing to grant Bomber Command its
own well deserved campaign medal left many aircrew wondering why they had volunteered in the
first place. The presentation by the Government of the Bomber Command Clasp to aircrew is too
little and too late. In protest at this establishment snub to his men, Harris refused a peerage in
1946; he was the sole Commander-in-Chief not to become a Peer. In February 1953 Winston
Churchill, now Prime Minister again, insisted that Harris accept a baronetcy
and he became Baronet.