Letters debating whether law-breakers should be ordered to enter one of the armed services took me back to the time, just after the war, when radio operators, like myself, were becoming surplus to requirements and were given office work. In my case, this was in a depot.

In wartime, if your time came to be enlisted, you had no choice but to go.

However, most of the criminal intake went AWOL almost as soon as they joined to return to their criminal ways and, as a result, got picked up by the police and finished up in prison – followed by a further stretch in the glasshouse for going AWOL.

On completing their prison sentence these people were returned to their unit, where, almost immediately, they went AWOL again – with the process repeating itself.

Unlike most of us, who had a record of just a couple of pages, these people ended up with something of a tome.

Also, it had to be remembered, that time in prison did not count as military service.

In the end, what happened to these constant offenders was that they were put on a draft before their prison sentence ended and then escorted to troop ships under guard and locked in the ships’ prison, only being released when their sentence ended. What happened to them once they reached the destination I hate to think.

Derrick Holt, Fortnam Close, Headington, Oxford