Was the bombing of Dresden a war crime?

THE BBC commemorated the 75th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden in which 25,000 people died. What about the 40,000 civilians killed by Luftwaffe bombers in the Blitz? Having lived through the firestorm in our capital city and the slaughter of millions of people throughout Europe by the Germans, I don’t mourn for Dresden. Such TV documentaries are made by people who have never lived through 24 hours of bombing.

GERALD NATHANSON, Chigwell, Essex.

LAST week, my three-year-old grandson asked his mother to send me an email to say how much he loved me. I’ll keep that forever in my heart. I never knew my grandfather and I don’t even know what he looked like because all our family possessions and photos were lost when we were bombed out three times in Portsmouth by the Luftwaffe. I was four when my mother and I were caught outside when German bombers attacked the Royal Navy dockyards. It took 30 years before my nightmares ceased.

Name and address supplied.

AUTHOR A. N. Wilson says the bombing of Dresden was a war crime. He was born in 1950, so all he knows about World War II is what he’s read. On May 11, 1941, Hitler sent three waves of bombers to try to destroy London. It was the night the Thames ran dry and firemen were pumping mud and sludge trying to put out the fires. I lost most of my family, who shared a four-storey tenement house. My father and I were the only survivors, dug out of the ruins after 30 hours. I was two years old and suffered cuts and bruising. My father was left disabled.

ERIC GINN, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts.