20 MAY 2000, Page 29

Unfair to subs

From Mr Patrick Tailyour Sir: Alistair Horne in his excellent article on the Maginot Line (The dread of body- bags', 13 May) refers to 'how ghastly it would have been during the "Phoney War", with hundreds of frightened, evil-smelling poilus packed in together for months at a time — worse than a nuclear submarine'.

As a former submarine officer, may I inform him that a nuclear submarine is 100 per cent air-conditioned? It has to be nothing is allowed to degrade it.

Patrick Tailyour

43 Edward Road, Fleckney, Leicestershire