THE Second World War still holds a firm grip on our national imagination. Just yesterday a Sunday newspaper reported that some of Winston Churchill's most famous radio speeches of the war were in fact spoken by an actor, Norman Shelley.

Churchill himself was said to have been too busy to record all of his own speeches, so the actor was hired to impersonate the Prime Minister.

That such a revelation should cause waves so many years later simply illustrates the importance the war plays in our history. As too does the row at the Yorkshire Air Museum, where one member is angry at the invitation extended to an ace German pilot. Paul Crawshaw believes that Hauptmann Heinz Rokker should not have been invited because his presence is an insult to the families of those who were killed by the German pilot.

Mr Crawshaw is entitled to his view, and if he stays away from the museum in protest, that is up to him. We should instead pay greater heed to former Flight Sergeant Eric Sanderson, who has a stronger personal interest in this issue, because his plane was shot down by Hauptmann Rokker over Hanover in 1944.

Mr Sanderson survived to meet his former opponent in the Seventies and the two airmen have since become firm friends. If two men who once were intent on killing each other can rise above their former hostilities and form a friendship, then we should applaud their sense and fellow-feeling.

We should never forget the sacrifices made during the Second World War, nor the lives lost as part of a vital and valiant struggle. Yet while it is right to keep such memories alive, reconciliation is important if history is ever to move on.

Invitations such as those extended to Hauptmann Rokker have an uplifting affect, reminding us of the high price both countries paid during the war, and revealing the humanity behind the grim facts of our recent past.