AN OXFORDSHIRE war hero will be one of the few remaining survivors of Bomber Command from the Second World War at the unveiling of a new memorial today.

Former RAF navigator Jim Wright, 93, has made the trip to the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln to see the tribute bearing the names of some of the 55,373 fellow flyers who died.

The site also features a new education centre which will tell Mr Wright’s story.

The Abingdon man is still fighting for a recognised campaign medal – a battle that has lasted more than 10 years.

Mr Wright said: “I think it’s great what they are doing and with the education centre it will mean the next generation will hear our story. I lost around 56,000 guys.

“You were very close to your crew of seven – and they have all gone.”

He hoped there would be a flyover at the occasion.

He said: “The old guys are always in tears when the Merlin or Lancaster flies over. We think the world of the aircraft we survived in.”

Mr Wright said his crew was replaced for a D-Day mission despite one of them protesting “but what am I going to tell my grandchildren I was doing on this day?”

The father-of-three began campaigning for a full medal in 2005.

In December 2012, the Government awarded Bomber Command veterans a bronze clasp to attach to their Second World War campaign medal – the 1939-45 Star.

The clasp was awarded on the same day Arctic convoy veterans received a campaign medal – the Arctic Star.

Mr Wright said: “ I admire the Arctic convoys and we support them, but we should have a full campaign medal.

“The clasp was a miserable, mean insult – it was offensive.”

Bomber Command’s legacy has divided opinion as some of the raids it carried out on Dresden and Hamburg killed thousands of civilians in 1945. Mr Wright hopes that the education centre would go some way to changing the perception.