LETTER: Allies committed war crimes, too

From Mr P. Marchese

Sir: I am sick of all the whingeing about how we suffered in the 1939- 45 war, and about all the war crimes that other nations involved committed. Of all the major participants, we probably suffered the least. The main loss we suffered was that of our empire, but that had reached its sell- by date anyway. When we complain about war crimes, we should look to see how clean our own hands are.

What about the carefully planned firestorm attacks on cities such as Hamburg and Dresden, where over 100,000 civilians were deliberately burnt alive? What about our abandonment of the Jewish population in Europe to the Nazi holocaust, when we had opportunities to negotiate on their behalf? What about our repatriation of the Cossacks to the merciless Soviets, which resulted in more deaths than that of our men in Japanese hands?

And now, how do we justify having our submarines patrolling the oceans of the world equipped with nuclear rockets designed to kill a million people at a time?

Yours faithfully,

P. Marchese

Gravesend, Essex