Bloody Sunday shooters must face justice

SIR – Field Marshal Lord Bramall (Comment, August 9) describes the actions of the shooters at Bloody Sunday as follows: “The most that might be established was a conscious error of judgment to discard the yellow card rules.” This is quite unlike the language of the Saville Inquiry.

Lord Bramall calls for an end to the investigation of soldiers involved. He is wrong for three reasons. First, the actions went beyond reckless. Those present witnessed a lethal breakdown in battlefield discipline, which led to an intensification of the conflict. In the 12 months before Bloody Sunday, 45 soldiers were killed; in the 12 months after, 127 soldiers were killed – in part because of the behaviour of those soldiers who deliberately shot and killed innocent civilians.

Secondly, this behaviour alienated the people we were there to help. Thirdly, it almost certainly made the campaign longer because information and intelligence flowed less freely, and we lost vital co-operation.

Colonel John Wilson (retd)

Platoon commander, Northern Ireland, 1972

Salisbury, Wiltshire

SIR – Surely, in a case like that of Sergeant O, a comfort letter of the kind issued to former IRA members should automatically follow the first inquiry.

If legal proceedings do take place, the public purse should fund both the prosecution and the defence costs of any Crown servant who was working in a conflict environment at the time of the alleged offence. We might then feel that our service personnel are being properly looked after. Sir Neil Thorne

London SW1