I refer to your article, Philip Pullman writes strip, Pegasus launches new comic (Oxford Mail, May 30).

I have written many letters to the Oxford Mail in the past 50 years and, as far as I'm aware, no benefit has ever come from any of them.

Now I'm 87, I should appreciate something positive arising from this one.

The article referred to a new child's comic to be called The DFC.

It is impossible to describe my reactions to this piece of news.

To me, and to many other inside and outside the Royal Air Force, DFC stands for Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to commissioned officers for outstanding bravery.

It is presented at Buckingham Palace by the ruling monarch.

Bomber Command lost more men in the 1939-45 war proportionally than any other war command.

They were numbered not in thousands, but in hundreds of thousands.

Each night, during raids on the Ruhr, and during the Battle of Britain, hundreds of planes were shot down.

Over Nuremberg, 96 went missing.

Multiply by seven for the exact crew numbers.

Air Chief Marshal Harris got no credit for the sustained bravery of Bomber Command.

Those in current power said the efforts were misplaced.

To learn that a comic has been commissioned called DFC is, to me, unbelievable.

I'm mindful of my dead friends who served in the RAF Bomber Command, and some of whom, still alive, were awarded the medal.

The insensitivity or ignorance is insufferable to all who belong to the Oxford Air Crew Association and Oxford's Bomber Command Association.

LIONEL HORNER (ex-RAF, DFC), Eden Drive, Headington, Oxford