Realities of war.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)

SIR: I was amused at the "musings" of Geoffrey Bewley and David Orgill (quoted by Bewley) (Letters, July-August 2004). Obviously these fellows have never been in a war.

Rommel was the most admired general of both sides in the North African campaign and acknowledged as a gentleman by all.

We won the battle of Alamein because of our numerical superiority. At that time the Germans had chased our troops at top speed across the desert into Alexandria. The Germans had no air cover. In Alexandria we had the lot. Under such conditions Montgomery would have been hard pressed to lose this battle, but despite our huge advantages over Rommel and his forces we allowed Rommel to withdraw successfully. Unfortunately he was later to die in Germany, admired by all except the Nazis.

Montgomery at that time was lionised because this was the first British "victory" in three years of war--big deal. His previous activity had been at Dunkirk--a smaller deal. At an earlier time either at school or in the army Montgomery had achieved some fame by holding some unfortunate fellow over a fire--nice chap!

May I tell a very brief story about the realities of war?

In late March 1945 the late Flight Lieutenant Ronald Pender and I ...