The war goes on
Sir: For Lindsey Platt to accuse me of `descending to personal abuse' (Letters, 11 January) is pretty rich, considering that his very first letter accused me of being informed and wrong-headed', 'knowing nothing' and even 'downright mad'. Subse- quently he has accused me of 'gross igno- rance', 'wilful misrepresentation', and ill grace. If the last of these is now true, I think your readers might think me justified.
To complain that I 'quoted no authority' on what the German people's reaction to a successful assassination of Hitler would have been is hardly surprising; such a thing cannot exist as it did not happen. Those authorities I did quote on related issues, such as Hugh Trevor-Roper, an intelligence officer operating in Germany immediately after the war, were entirely ignored by the egregious Mr Platt.
To assume, as both Messrs Platt and Lamb do, that Field Marshal von Kluge would have been in a position simply to surrender the German army in the West in June 1944 hard- ly takes into account such indications of the continued stamina of that force as the Ardennes Offensive, which took place a full six months after the Bomb Plot failed.
As for what Mr Platt calls my 'absurd' contention that German revanchism would have been fuelled by the knowledge that the plotters had been British-backed, saying that of course the plotters 'would never have told' anyone, he must surely realise that some time in the subsequent 53 years the true facts would have somehow leaked from one side or the other. But then with a fully paid up conspiracy theorist like Mr Platt, anything is possible.
Andrew Roberts
2 Tite Street, London SW3
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