Sir: I have the advantage over Norman Stone in having
lived through the second world war (I was 18 when it began), and in having crossed the beaches on D-Day. I am not a historian, but at least I know how it felt.
Mr Stone has some interesting points, but he makes two major errors. Firstly, to blame the strategic bombing campaign on `Bomber' Harris is a misunderstanding of the mood of a democratic country at war
LETTERS
for its very survival. The policy of mass bombing of German cities was decided by Churchill and Roosevelt at Casablanca in January 1943. It had the overwhelming sup- port of the British people. Those few, like Bishop Bell, who had the courage to speak against it, were reviled. We did not mind that we were killing women and children: we were paying them back in their own coin, and if we were paying them back a hundredfold — well and good.
Secondly, to say that D-Day was only 'mop- ping up the bits' is ludicrous. Lord Alan- brooke confided to his diary that 'it could eas- ily be the biggest disaster of the war'. And if Rommel had had his way and stationed his tanks well forward, it would have been.
Today, there are some 100,000 graves in Normandy, over half of them German. Some mopping. Some bits. Nor are there any grounds for even Mr Stone's two-and three-quarter cheers: any Cheers at all are out of place.
Sidney Vanes 1 Willow Close,
Laverstock, Salisbury, Wilts
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