I agree wholeheartedly with A Hollick (Letters, September 6) concerning the lack of appreciation of the work of the Merchant Navy during the Second World War.

Britain's strategy throughout the conflict was governed by the availability of shipping for the movement and supply of troops and for the feeding and maintenance of the population at home.

All the divisions and guns in the world could not have saved us had the Merchant Navy shut up shop in the face of the enemy. There would have been no El Alamein, no Malta convoys and no D-Day - in fact, no victory.

Millions of tons of merchant shipping were sunk and thousands of seamen died during the war, keeping the supply lines flowing. Most shipowners stopped crew pay from the moment a ship was sunk, even though men might spend days, maybe weeks, in an open lifeboat on icy seas.

Without taking anything away from our fighting forces, nothing would have been possible without the work of the civilian Merchant Navy.

-R F Osborne, Rushlake Close, Coldean