PEOPLE started arguing about the Dresden raid almost before the last Lancaster limped home, and the flak is flying yet (Julian Cole’s column, February 26).

I align myself with the “bleeding hearts”, insofar as I think the bombs might have been better spent. I can’t see how my stance impugns the courage of the aircrews.

Indeed, I have a particular admiration for the Polish airmen who, learning that Joseph Stalin had been awarded what Adolf Hitler was denied, nevertheless did their duty and flew with their British comrades.

I believe it was a letter of February 18 citing a headline in the Daily Mail of February 14 which provoked our recent local dog-fight. This targeted Justin Welby for his commemorative speech in Dresden.

There was a quibble on his choice of the word “regret”. The Mail exploited this to give the impression that the archbishop had apologised for the famous raid. It was a linguistic bombshell.

When the emotive fug has cleared, it will be recalled that “regret” is commonly used to express sorrow and sympathy and less often as an admission of guilt.

Ironically, Simon Heffer of the Mail sufficiently forgot himself to write in the same edition, “It is, of course, regrettable that so many lives were lost”.

William Dixon Smith, Acomb, York.