SIXTY years ago, from July 10, 1940, saw the start of the four months 'Battle of Britain' which some of the more mentally alert octogenarians still among us may recall was the worst period of the six war years we had to endure.

This is the one anniversary - it seems hardly appropriate to call it the Diamond Jubilee - in this so called Millennium Year, which deserves significant recognition, because those participants still left are now well into their eighties and the numbers dwindle with every year that passes.

The unveiling, by the Duke of Edinburgh recently of a memorial in Liverpool dedicated to the known 4,500 air raid victims of Liverpool and Bootle was long overdue and again raises the question as to whether there should be a national Roll of Honour in Westminster Abbey, comprising seven bound volumes containing 66,375 names of known air raid victims. Civilians were just as much in the front line as the armed forces and in many ways less protected.

Crewe was fortunate in some respects compared with Merseyside (we suffered 37 air raid victims) but the town was a primary target on the German hit list due to having Rolls-Royce and the railway station and marshalling yards (code named 'Junction 'X') where hundreds of troop trains and freight trains carrying vital supplies coming through the Scottish and West Coast ports converged daily.

Enemy aircraft found Crewe difficult to locate in darkness when most bombing raids took place and bad weather frequently meant they had to choose secondary targets. As the bombers usually came inland over the West country, places such as Bristol were the alternatives for attack.

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