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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In excess of £30,000 has been raised for the RAF Benevolent Fund at a special dinner to mark 70 years since D-Day.<\/p>\n
More than 250 attended the fundraising event, including veterans who served in the Second World War.<\/p>\n
The recent London dinner will support the service charity, which spent over £18 million last year alone to support more than 60,000 people associated with the Royal Air Force.<\/p>\n
The occasion also helped to honour the airmen who took part in the D-Day invasion, one of the pivotal moments in World War II.<\/p>\n
"Air power was key to the success of D-Day. The strategic air offensive against Germany had shifted the battle to the skies above the Third Reich," explained Air Marsha Chris Nickols, controller of the RAF Benevolent Fund.<\/p>\n
"When the Allied Normandy beach landings took place there was, initially, very little the Luftwaffe could do in response."<\/p>\n
He reminded people that the fact the D-Day landings were a success made an opening for Western Europe to be liberated. Within the space of one year following the landings, WWII was over in Europe.<\/p>\n
"Tonight, 70 years on, we remember the brave sacrifices of all involved in D-Day," he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Nickols also honed-in on the individual story of Lee Walker, an RAF member who was there on D-Day.<\/p>\n
Aged 94, he has recently started receiving support from the organisation, after he began to find things like taking a bath increasingly difficult. The charity provided adaptions like new furniture and a wet room, to help improve his home life.<\/p>\n
"Lee was lucky, he survived D-Day, and we are delighted to have been able to help him lead a dignified and independent retirement," added Mr Nickols.<\/p>\n
It was shortly after an even older war that the Fund was first founded. In the months following WWI in 1919, Lord Trenchard – the same man who founded the Air Force itself in 1918 – set up the charity.<\/p>\n
As well as events to mark D-Day, there are many WWI themed events taking place this year, as it is now 100 years since that war first began, in 1914.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In excess of £30,000 has been raised for the RAF Benevolent Fund at a special dinner to mark 70 years since D-Day. More than 250 attended the fundraising event, including veterans who served in the Second World War. The recent London dinner will support the service charity, which spent over £18 million last year alone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"In excess of £30,000 has been raised for the RAF Benevolent Fund at a special dinner to mark 70 years since D-Day.More than 250 attended the fundraising event, including veterans ... "},"author":1,"featured_media":3854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-support-soldiers"],"yoast_head":"\n