We said last week that we weren’t blogging today – but here’s a special report that needs writing even though it takes us out of our usual discomfort zone of Boston …

L

incolnshire is forever banging on about its history and heritage – but has Bomber County dropped something of a clanger by ignoring an important book about arguably the most famous air raid of World War II … one that started and finished in the county?

Chastise – The Dambusters Story 1943 by renowned war historian Sir Max Hastings may well in time be acknowledged as the definitive history of that raid in which the RAF’s ‘bouncing bomb’ attack burst Germany’s Mohne and Eder reservoirs on the night of 16^th/17^th May 1943.

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It’s a story that has Lincolnshire written through it just like a stick of Skegness rock.

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The book has received rave reviews – and having just finished it, we can only agree.

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Yet although the raid set off from RAF Scampton near Lincoln – now the home of the Red Arrows – and the book is littered with other place names from around the county such as Lincoln and its pubs, Boston and its Gliderdrome, Grantham, Woodhall Spa … we got a unwelcome surprise when we visited the author’s website.

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On publication on 5^th September, author Sir Max began a busy promotional tour – to talk about his book and to sign copies.
Whilst not quite an  A-Z of the country, the 39 venues between now and next April range from Bridport to Yorkshire and include the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, the Imperial War Museum – and the  BBC History Festival.

There are even two overseas bookings in Hong Kong and Belgium.

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Now – would you, or would you not expect that some organisation somewhere in Lincolnshire would be falling all over itself to invite a famous author – who earlier in his writing career interviewed the bouncing bomb creator Barnes Wallis and  Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, the wartime commander-in-chief of Bomber Command – to come to Lincolnshire to talk about this book?

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Of course you would.

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But when we raised the point with Sir Max Hastings, his reply was brief and to the point: “Sorry I’m not performing in Lincolnshire, but as far as I know no book shop proposed anything.”

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How shameful is that?

Never mind bookshops.

What were Lincolnshire County Council or our seven  district councils playing at to miss an opportunity to highlight an event that the county dines out on as part of its history and tourist appeal?

We have venues galore that could have hosted a big crowd – which we are sure that such an event would have drawn.

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This seems to have been a serious case of wilful neglect and a lost opportunity by the powers that be and others – especially in light of the campaign to keep the Red Arrows in Lincolnshire rather than see them move to another base in Yorkshire or Cambridgeshire.

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