Normandy revisited
Sir: On two recent occasions contributors to The Spectator have referred to the casu- alty figures for the D-Day landings: Robert Harris in the Diary for 23 April and Ian Buruma in an article in the issue of 30 April (If you lost, celebrate peace'). Robert Harris claimed that 9,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded on 6 June 1944 and Ian Buruma asserted that 36,000 men died in the first two days of the Normandy landings. While not wanting to dissent from the general views expressed by either contribu- tor, I wonder if anything is served by the apparent exaggeration in the casualty fig- ures for the D-Day landings?
In a recent letter in the Daily Telegraph (22 April), Professor Brian Bond quotes figures for fatalities during the period 6 'It's only fair you should know, I slept with your older sister.' June to 20 June, which are: British 1,842, Canadian 363 and American 3,082. It is, then, likely that Robert Harris's figures for all casualties are accurate; Ian Buruma's fig- ures for deaths on the first two days are wild- ly inaccurate, given Brown's total of 5,287.
When Ian Buruma referred to the occa- sions 'when history turns into mythology or political symbolism', he was, perhaps, writ- ing more pertinently than he realised.
Cecil Ballantine
24 Albany Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
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