MADAM, May I thank JFJ Johnson for his highly amusing letter of June 20, entitled 'The Bayonet as Killing weapon'.

I am grateful for this opportunity to help inform him about the use of the bayonet in modern warfare.

Although for many the word conjures an image of a 19th century soldier with a knife strapped to his rifle, bayonets were actually used to great effect as recently as the Falkland Islands War, and are still fitted to the SA80, the Army's main rifle.

Indeed, the Scots Guards proudly claim in their regimental history that: 'The 2nd Battalion sailed to the Falkland Islands in 1982 and they won, at night and at the point of the bayonet, the battle for Mount Tumbledown.

'In so doing, they brought about the collapse and surrender of Argentine forces in the islands.'

I fear that Mr Johnson does a disservice to the remarkable courage of our armed forces if he suggests that wars are won without our soldiers ever engaging the enemy face to face, or indeed bayonet to bayonet.

PAUL KEETCH MP,

Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary.