Dear Sir/Madam,

The debate about the morality of the terror bombing of German cities by the Allies in World War 2 is not merely a matter of historical interest, but one which has very important implications for us today.

If, under certain circumstances, we are prepared to rationalise and justify the deliberate killing of civilians ourselves, we need hardly be surprised when others (Palestinians and Islamic militants, for example), do the same (“Germans call Churchill a war criminal”, 19 November 2002).

We were at war and Germany started it, we claim.

We are at war and Israel started it, claim the Palestinians

We are at war and the West started it, claim Al Qaeda.

Only by expressing our sincere shame and regret for the terror against civilian populations that has been committed in our name can we credibly and without hypocrisy condemn the terror currently being directed at ourselves and our friends.  

Postscript:

What, I believe, the German historian, Jorg Friedrich, also points out, and your article fails to mention, is that instead of having the desired effect of breaking the morale of the civilian German population, it did exactly the opposite, unifying them behind their leadership and making them more determined than ever to fight to the last. It also diverted Allied attacks away from genuinely strategic targets.

The decision to terror bomb German cities rather than concentrating all resources on key targets essential to the German war effort thus had the very opposite effect to that intended. Instead of shortening the war it lengthened it.

Shortening the war even by a few months would have saved 100’s of thousands of lives, not just of combatants, but also of those dying and being murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

Typically, it was others, especially Jews, who paid the price for the blundering bloody-mindedness of our leaders. We killed a lot more innocent Germans than we needed to, and in so doing enabled the Nazis to kill a lot more Jews.