War Veteran Godfrey Flack

 

Godfrey Flack is a former World War Two Lancaster bomber Pilot. He flew 40 bombing missions over Germany in the early 1940s, a time when it was considered almost impossible to survive so many combat operations, as evidenced by his comrades who survived only a handful of missions and never returned. Yet Godfrey did survive, and last December, this Tasmanian war veteran, at 94 years old, was awarded France’s highest Military award – the Legion of Honour.

 

It was the French Ambassador to Australia, Christoper Lecourtier, who paid homage to this man’s service at a moving ceremony held at Hobart Town Hall, reminding those attending that he was speaking of ‘an adolescent youth’ at just twenty years old:

 

“That year, 1944, you entered legend, you became a hero. You were no longer a fighter, you had become a liberator. You were no longer merely a man, but a living symbol of our common values, the spirit of resistance, the spirit of liberty, the spirit of mate-ship.”

 

As he proudly accepted the Award, his emotional response was:

 

“We only did what we could, for whatever group we could represent or acknowledge. I will say thank you very much to all the people who have become my friends, and all the people I ever knew.”  

 

After the ceremony, Mr Flack recalled growing up in Queenstown and driving trucks while harbouring a deep desire to join the Air Force.  He did not originally go to school or attend University, but eventually completed his studies at the top of his class. His son, Patrick, added his own congratulatory words:

 

“We’re so proud … people come back from the war, they have their problems and their families have to deal with that too. But he’s been positive for us. He’s done for us what he did in the war. Nothing is ever a drama. He just looked after us, and made us stand up and be accountable, same as he did.”

 

Mr Lecourtier said that Mr Flack’s exceptional service was a reminder of the challenges France and Australia would continue to face, particularly in the light of recent Paris terror attacks.

 

“Today’s ceremony resonates in a way with what’s happening in the world, not only in France, because we see that probably, unfortunately, this century is no less dangerous than the previous one. We will need new men and women, just like this one, to defend our values, to defend our communities, and that’s unfortunately, a never-ending story.”

 

 

This article is from the Autumn 2016 issue of Confound and Destroy