The townspeople long ago upgraded Meiklejohn's nom de guerre to "the man from Wagga Wagga", or, to be precise, Downside; annually they honour him and his crew, who through his action's in diverting his fully bomb-laden aircraft away from the town centre, avoided great devastation.

The original sobriquet was given to Billy Kerr who was brought up in Wagga (he worked at 2WG) and started his fabulous acting career here. After WWII, Kerr moved to Britain where, it is written, he struck "an instant chord with the post-war British audiences of the BBC".

Kerr was to play a prominent part during 1955 in the film, The Dambusters, about the RAF's attack on the dams of the Ruhr Valley in Germany, re-shown on television the day after Cochrane's enthralling song and video, The Captain and 366, was released.

Mayor Greg Conkey's thoughts since of establishing a lasting partnership with the people of Hamont-Achel is a meaningful project for our military-based city.

Not only that but Air Commodore Robert Rodgers, also a musician, while based at RAAF Forest Hill in 2009, composed, wrote and sang the song, 21 May 1945, to commemorate the Kapooka tragedy that day in which 26 sappers of the Royal Australian Engineers died in the Army's biggest home-land accident.

The average age of the dead was 23, about the same as Meiklejohn's crew; Meiklejohn himself was 21 when he died along with navigator Charles Redwood, 31, ironically the same age as Sgt Herb Pomeroy, the most highly ranked of the 26 killed at Kapooka.

Cochrane's claim that tales like The Captain and 366 (and 21 May, 1945) set to music could reach far and wide is true; further, they provide a pathway and inspiration for generations of Australians now and those to follow, to be aware of the sacrifices made by those called to defend our freedom.

It is worth noting in the aftermath of the Hamont-Achel tragedy, several of the crew experienced years as PoWs. There are many survivors' stories, including Frank Hugo's, 366's bomb aimer, who was looked after by a local family and eventually arrived in Paris where he was betrayed to the Gestapo.

Hugo, then 19, was tried as a spy and condemned to death; when it was finally recognised he was in the RAF, he was transferred to a PoW camp and re-united with two more of the crew.

The 366's survivors all spoke with great affection about the bravery of the Belgium and French people, especially those in the underground, particularly the women who showed such heroism.

Hugo, in his memoirs, praised French sisters Jeanette and Lisette Collette-Bucken, noting that whatever happened to him was nothing endured by Jeanette in Ravensbruck concentration camp after she was captured.

It was therefore pleasing this Anzac Day that women received due recognition, none more so than at The Grange lifestyle village service where Navy chief petty officer, Donna Edge gave the address; in Hobart by the Tasmanian Governor, Kate Warner, and in Michael McCormack's annual Anzac commemorative booklet; McCormack spends at least two hours a week beyond his parliamentary duties preparing each year's edition.