SIR – Sorry to have to correct Mr Myers yet again but there is on record more than one instance of British soldiers opening fire on unarmed civilians in the United Kingdom.

Some striking miners were shot and killed near Fryston Colliery in the late 19th century, that story is well documented in local history, the details inscribed on a gravestone in a cemetery there.

More recently, just over 30 years ago in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the incident known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ occurred when members of the Parachute Regiment returned fire after allegedly coming under attack from IRA snipers in some nearby flats resulting in over a dozen civilian demonstrators being killed.

Again, on the Waffen SS, Mr Myers is wrong as it was formed as an elite military unit with very high entry standards involving unquestioning loyalty to both Germany and its Fuhrer.

That some SS commanding officers ordered their men to carry out atrocities is correct, but no ordinary soldier of any army in the world in wartime can have a philosophical discussion with his superior on the validity of such orders, they just obey.

Many SS officers were later prosecuted for war crimes, some hanged or shot, others imprisoned.

D S Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds