Cutting cables

SIR – The vulnerability of underwater cables is apparently a “new risk to our way of life” (report, 15 December).

Cable-cutting is nothing new: HMS Laconia started cutting the underwater cables linking Germany to France, Spain and North America on August 5 1914, while in the Second World War the Germans cut the cables linking Norway to Britain.

The Germans were unable to repair their cables, while we were able to repair the Norwegian cables, in both cases because we had command of the sea. David J Critchley

Buckingham