I TRUST T Scaife (Letters, July 27) can produce hard evidence to back-up his claim about “certain crew members refusing to bomb any more” in his character assassination of those brave young men of Bomber Command.

I recently had the great honour of being a guest at the reunion dinner of 102 Squadron and I was humbled to meet these gentlemen.

I asked them what their opinion was of Winston Churchill and, to a man, they despised his distancing of himself from Bomber Command, as the war was entering its final days, choosing instead to blame AVM “Bomber” Harris, conveniently forgetting that Churchill himself who fomented the idea of “carpet-bombing”.

As usually happens when it’s time to portray the brave men of Bomber Command as the sole force bombing the Nazis into submission, T Scaife fails to mention the US Eighth Air Force bombing German cities in daylight hours.

I trust T Scaife has experienced being bombed. I have, as a very young child, living in New Earswick, when the Luftwaffe attacked York in the Baedeker raid. I can assure him it was terrifying.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge.

• YES, war is hell... but to concentrate on casualties in Germany is insensitive, as the Blitz occurred across Europe and in Russia.

In one night in October 1940, during the Blitz on London, 18,000 fires were lit, and the pavements and roads melted.

The men who climbed into those planes knew they may not come back, and a regular feature of radio logs is “nothing heard after take off”. They deserve recognition for doing their duty – as ordered by others.

Andrew Smyth, Rawcliffe, York.

• MR SCAIFE gives a hindsight view of the Bomber Command that needs a reply, if only in defence of the 55,000 volunteer aircrew who died.

From 1939 for almost two years, most British cities/towns, regularly had German air raids, many incurred large areas of devastation, thousands of civilians and uniformed members of the population died and were injured, many similar to those described in the letter.

Others, such as York, had occasional raids. Before Britain, Rotterdam and other European cities were almost completely destroyed with similar casualties.

Most British towns/cities were all engaged in a war effort with ammunition factories, army training and similar, and so were legitimate targets, just to demoralise the people. The same applied to the 100 German cities or more.

There were many, misguided, political and historical analysts with detrimental criticisms when reports became known.

Memorials to those who are sacrificed serving their country never knowing what the consequential views of hindsight would be are totally justified.

J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.