20 NOVEMBER 1999, Page 40

From Mr Mark Corby Sir: John Vincent hesitates to utter

the supreme blasphemy. We were mad to have gone to war in 1939 and madder still to continue it throughout 1940.

Even a cursory glance at Mein Kampf would have told us that we were not on Hitler's shopping list and that Operation Sealion was a charade, designed to bam- boozle nice, cuddly Uncle Joe Stalin.

As it was, by September 1940 we had tossed three centuries of accumulated Imperial booty out of the window and become a bankrupt pensioner of the Unit- ed States.

If either of the Pitts, Canning or Palmer- ston had been at the helm, rather than Churchill, we would have waited until June 1941 and the launch of Operation Bar- barossa before making our move.

Mark Corby

38 Rollscourt Avenue, London SE24