Bomber Command memorial portraits: then and now The new portraits of the airmen, which sit alongside official service photos from their time at Bomber Command during the Second World War, were taken by Telegraph photographer Julian Andrews to coincide with the unveiling of the new £7.5 million memorial to the unit in London's Green Park. Some 125,000 airmen took part in the five-year air offensive against Germany, a campaign widely credited with helping to bring about the end of the war. But the cost was high: 55,573 members of Bomber Command were killed. Only service in the infantry in the First World War trenches had a comparable fatality rate. But from the moment the war ended in 1945, the men who survived saw their role ignored by the authorities. In his V-E Day speech, Winston Churchill, the prime minister, pointedly omitted to mention the contribution made by Bomber Command. This official silence followed growing disquiet about the cost in German civilian lives during the campaign. The men were subsequently denied a campaign medal or a permanent national memorial. Here, set to Julian's remembrances of his time with the veterans, the portraits serve as a tribute to the men of Bomber Command.