A memorial in London's Green Park commemorates the wartime actions of the crews of Bomber Command.

In June 2012, the Queen was in Green Park in London as part of her Diamond Jubilee year celebrations.

Sixty-seven years after the end of World War II (when the British monarch was still a teenager) the men of Bomber Command finally saw the dedication and unveiling of a memorial to their wartime services.

Many of the airmen who flew with Bomber Command during the war were little more than teenagers themselves: the average age was 22.

They were not all from the UK, but came from across the Commonwealth and from occupied countries including Czechoslovakia, Poland and France.

Life expectancy of aircrew during active service was two weeks, and 55,573 of those young men never came home. That’s more than the total number of people that serve in the entire Royal Air Force today.

One man who lived to tell the tale was my father-in-law, although he, like many of his friends from those days, couldn’t hang on quite long enough to see the unveiling of the memorial. A fly-past of a formation of modern Tornado jets and a wartime Lancaster bomber that rained a shower of poppies honoured the attending veterans and their families.

The memorial was designed by Liam O’Connor and is constructed to a classical design from Portland stone. Inside on a raised pediment is a magnificent, larger-than-life bronze statue group of seven Lancaster crewmen returning from a mission, by sculptor Philip Jackson. The scale of the sculpture and its position means that visitors look up to see these figures against the open sky.

Aluminium from a Handley Page Halifax that crashed in Belgium in May 1944 was used to build the roof, which evokes the geodetic structure of the Vickers Wellington. It is surrounded by an immaculately landscaped setting at the top of Green Park just by Hyde Park Corner opposite the Royal Air Force Club on Piccadilly.

The memorial has been visited by thousands of people since it was unveiled in the summer and was recently the most rated London attraction on Trip Advisor. With people travelling from as far as New Zealand and Canada to visit the Memorial, hundreds of people have left tributes, photos and memorabilia.

On 11 November, the Bomber Command Association padre [a military clergyman] led a short service of remembrance at the Memorial prior to the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph.

Serco, the international services company, has been tasked by the RAF Benevolent Fund, the guardians of the memorial, with maintaining it and keeping it in peak condition for the numerous visitors and veterans.

With Serco’s track record of providing support services and its special connection to the Armed Forces, the RAF Benevolent Fund is confident this memorial to the many men who lost their lives will be maintained with great care, providing a place of comfort and solace for relatives. Read more HERE

55,573 young men died defending Britain against Nazi Germany , yet its taken over 60 years to dedicate a memorial to their wartime services. At long last we have something we can be proud of especially the living relatives of those RAF Heroes.  WATCH THE VIDEO