I SUPPORT and endorse everything that W Soley said about Remembrance Day (Letters, November 2).

I would go further and ask people who have never heard a shot fired in anger what is so glorious in being dead.

Perhaps someone can tell me who wrote the words 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' (It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country). I have the answer to that question: Take it as said.

Did the men who were left to die in the Atlantic Ocean when ships could have saved them but ignored their cries for help, cry out in their last moments: "I am dying for my king and country and go to a glorious death?"

In politicians' war games, men are expendable -- they are the pawns. But ships cost money and safety of the ship was paramount, so hundreds of men were left to die a lonely but 'glorious' death.

I am not using words from another person's mouth or what passes for truth in history books -- I can wear the Atlantic Star and the 1939-45 War medal.

I would also point out that, in the early days of the Second World War, the German U-boats did not sink British ships without warning. The first ship attacked was the SS Bantria, 30 miles from the Scilly Isles on September 3 1939.

The U-boat surfaced and signalled the ship's captain: "Maintain radio silence you have 20 minutes to abandon ship." There was one casualty -- a coal trimmer who did not hear the warning.

The next ship attacked was the SS Athenia at about 2am the next day. Again the U-boat signalled the ship's captain: "Maintain radio silence, you have 30 minutes to abandon ship."

There were more than 1,000 people on board and anyone with a grain of intelligence would know that had she been sunk without warning the casualty list would have been extremely heavy. As it was, there were only ten casualties.

I am not pro German -- I am pro truth. I am sick of 'historians' trying to rewrite history to sell their books and to deceive younger generations.

War is not a game. It is not an adventure -- because soldiers are only pawns in the great moves by world magnates.

LESLIE JONES, Aviemore Close, Audley, Blackburn.