LIKE Tom Seale (HAS, Oct 22), I was also around in the late Thirties when Herr Hitler was chucking his weight about, getting away with taking over different countries with little or no opposition.

Much of what he started to annexe was part of the German mainland before the 1914-18 “war to end all wars” when different areas were taken in reparations and made separate entities.

In the Thirties, normal people did not believe that the German people would be so willing to go to war again. Hence, Neville Chamberlain and his bit of paper, as Mr Seale mentioned.

Wrong again. Who knows how long he would have got away with it if he had not entered Poland. The result of that indiscretion was the note where he was told to hop it out of Poland or else – which was followed by the UK declaring war on Germany for the start of the Second World War.

If Mr Seale is correct in his reasoning of why, today, our troops should be in Afghanistan, why are we not in Israel? They certainly are doing the same as the Nazis, seemingly trying to get rid of the Palestinians who had to move over after Moses brought the tribes out of Egypt.

ME Harris, Darlington.