Understatement!

British grit!

Yes, makes you realise what a farce the so-called "honours" system is. What a wonderful man, why does there need to be a campaign, an honour for him should have been granted before now.

A very special breed of men, the men who flew bombers during the war. Over 57,000 were posted as killed or missing during the war. With the odds they faced of surviving each sortie, it is amazing that the crews found the strength of purpose to keep climbing back into the Lancs and Halifaxes time after time. Thank God they did. His reply was typical - Service humour has always been heavy on understatement!

It was an appalling dangerous mission but there were many servicemen doing similarly dangerous work.
These were mainly very young men. I am sure there was fear but young testosterone fuelled men do tend to have more derring do than the older and wiser and more experienced.

Think of those men suffering shell shock being stressed with horrors way beyond anything we could imagine.

I like a bit of understated humour.All those pilots were brave, fully knowing that each mission could well be the last.....and so young!

He did go on to say that if he did receive an honour he would ask that it be dedicated to the 53,000 airmen who lost their lives especially the 57 men in his squadron who did not return from the raids.

Nelliemoser - yes I do think of those men who suffered shell shock - my father was one of them.

They were so young and incredibly brave. I was very moved when I visited Poperinghe and saw where young men in their teens had been shot at dawn for 'cowardice'. It makes me cry to think about them. And yet we give gongs to so called 'celebrities' for doing...what? As has been said there shouldn't need to be a campaign to give him an Honour.

What a truly brave man and so much more deserving of an honour than many so called celebrities. Love the understatement, very British.
Raise a glass to George and all the other brave men and women

Maybe as the general public, we should do an honour of our own and blow the upper class. A bit like Pride of Britain awards. If it is coming from the country and not some toffee nosed Sirs and Lords voting in a giant boardroom with whisky and cigars, then it would mean more to the average Joe who has done so much for his fellow man and country.

I gather there is now a petition, started by Carol Vorderman, on Change.org. Go to the site and search dambuster.

Just wanted to say that Johnny Johnson did receive a Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) for his part in the raid. He couldn't have been awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), because they weren't awarded at the time to non-commissioned officers.

Guy Gibson and Leonard Cheshire were both RAF officers who received the VC. Below the VC is the Distinguished Service Order, followed by the DFC/DFM.

Guy Gibson was the most highly decorated WW2 serviceman, but even he never received a civilian honour. Leonard Cheshire was made a life peer, but this was for charitable work after the war. Although Johnson was undoubtedly brave, awarding him a civilian honour would be unprecedented.

It says on Wikipedia that he had a DFC and bar, but there is a photo of him in old age somewhere which shows him holding up his medals and it is definitely a DFM. I read that he ended his RAF career as an Air Vice Marshall.

Since leaving the RAF he worked as a teacher and did a lot of charity work, I would say he was much more deserving of an honour than Victoria Beckham! Just because something has never been done before is no reason not to do it.

They flew into the abyss knowing that there was little chance of surviving and in my book they were/are all heroes. These young men did there duty without complaint and I salute them. Guy Gibson was only 26 when he was killed

I see that even the French are honouring our old soldiers, in our local paper today one has just been awarded the Croix de Guere (hope I didn't just say Cross of the Station there)During the war my fathers regiment was awarded two, one went to the Colonel, for the regiment, and one was raffled....

That generation were amazing! Obviously the people on the front line were brave but just the way people at home carried on, day in day out, takes my breath away when I think about it.

Today people seem to want counselling for every little upset and grievance................

He knows he has our respect what would he want an award for now they are so debased by the current tranche of recipients.

I remember the furore when the Beatles got theirs.

If you will forgive the digression, on subject of understatement, I was put in mind if an incident that occurred when DH was serving in Ireland. Their barracks was just across the water from the Bogside and it was the habit of the inhabitants there to take pot shots from time to time at anyone they could see wandering about in our side. One such shot was fired and narrowly missed a near neighbour of ours who said he felt it whistle past his head and it lodged just in front of the petrol tank in our car which was parked outside DH's office! DH went to round to see him and asked if he was feeling okay. "Oh yeah," he said "They obviously decided I needed my hair parting on the other side for a change!" Our little car sported a nice neat hole for the duration of its life because DH refused to get it repaired.

They are all Hero,s who all deserve recognition .

I've already signed the petition. It's a sad state of affairs when people can be rewarded for being a pop star or simply doing a job that they are already richly rewarded for. The honours system is disgusting, there is a list of people that have refused them simply because they feel they are doing the things that they love and don't need anything else.

I was watching an item on the news last night about Dr David Nott, a British surgeon who has been working in what was left of a hospital in Aleppo. There were tears in my eyes at the brilliant work that he and other medics have been doing out there. They are the ones who should have honours by the bucketload, but who trumpets their magnificent efforts?

sunseeker, The trouble with doing something unprecedented is that it undermines other service personnel and their awards.

One of my uncles was also an air vice marshal, who received a DFC but no honour. Another uncle also received a DFC. My father was a bomber pilot and received nothing. Should all these people and the countless others who flew dangerous flights with little recognition, have their awards upgraded?

Just checked Wiki and Johnson was awarded a CBE and CB in later life.

Douglas Bader was eventually knighted, but that was for work with the disabled, not for his heroism in the RAF. I wouldn't like to be on an awarding committee (or whatever they have) but somebody must have decided at some point that Bader did more than Johnson.

PS. I don't think that many of the people who have received honours should have received them, but awarding more just undermines their value.

I totally agree, George "Johnny" Johnson should have been given a Knighthood without a petition, I have signed the petition, so lets hope he recieves his reward in time for him to know he is a true heroe in everyones eyes.Bless this lovely man.

But, if all the other dambusters didn't get one of these gongs, why should he? For staying alive longer? As Dd says, they were honoured at the time.