I REFER to letter from Christopher Reekie (February 13) and John Birkett (February 14). It was no part of my intention to belittle Britain’s role in this conflict or, in case of doubt, to act as an apologist for Stalin’s abominable regime: simply to put matters into perspective.

But for the English Channel Britain would have been over-run. In any case though, with Western Europe subjugated, Hitler could direct the full weight of the Wehrmacht towards his primary, deluded, obsessions: lebensraum; the enslavement of the Slavic Untermensch and the elimination of Jewry.

To pick out only one element prayed in aid about Britain’s contribution. Whilst the Allies did indeed send material (overwhelmingly produced in the US) to Russia this was tactically to sustain the latter’s struggles to provide time to prepare for the Normandy invasion. But steel? Russia was largely self-sufficient. The key here, as the Germans advanced, was the logistically remarkable physical transfer of the Don Basin armaments factories behind the Urals as the Germans advanced. Where, indeed, the mass production of the T34 tank began which undid the German Tigers at Kursk.

But to the bigger picture. In the end, it is the will of peoples, not leaders, that determine outcomes. So to facts:

Military deaths: Soviet Union (minimum) eight million; Germany 3.5 million; Britain 260,000. Civilian deaths: Soviet Union (minimum) 16 million; Germany 780,000; Britain 92,000 (source: Norman Davies, Europe,1996, Appendix 111, p1328, Tables 2 and 3).

So some recognition of proportionality please?

Leslie Smith,

144-8 Commercial Street, Leith.