R. WESTMORELAND (Letters, February 20) insults the men of Bomber Command and the US 8th. Air Force. He hasn’t a clue about the air raid on Dresden or any other for that matter.

He quotes the figure of a possible 300,000 dead. This was the figure quoted by Joseph Goebels, Propaganda Minister of the Nazi Party.

The numbers killed by the A-bombing of Hiroshima (150,000) and Nagasaki (75,000) totalled 220,000.

The figure of those killed in Dresden is widely recognised as 26,000.

The US 8th Air Force never bombed at night. Mr Westmoreland quotes the RAF “bombing sleeping civilians”.

Dresden would have air raid warning systems to waken people and let them head for shelter.

Mr Westmoreland makes no mention of the indiscriminate German bombing of London and the Home Counties using the first guided-missiles (V1s and V2s) used in warfare.

Mr Westmoreland seems only too keen to denigrate our armed forces. I see that he lives in Pocklington which still has much of its airfield remaining. Many raids on Germany were launched from Pocklington.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge, York.