RE your story about tests to be carried out on land in and around the former RAF wartime chemical weapons storage site on Bowes Moor, near Barnard Castle, Co Durham (Echo, Dec 19).

During my research over the years on Thornaby Airfield, I spoke to men seconded there to start clearing the site after the Second World War ended.

It became clear it was a dangerous task and a number of service people suffered badly from chemical burns/blisters because when they lifted the wooden crates with the cans of liquid in, the bottoms fell out of the cans due to corrosion and the chemicals spilled all over the moor.

They did try to burn dumps of the stuff, but the smoke killed all the vegetation downwind of the fires so it was stopped.

There was also German nerve gas stored there, like sarin, on a temporary basis until it was shipped by train to the military port at Cairnryan, Scotland, and put on old cargo boats which were sunk in the Atlantic.

Bowes Moor was not the only place chemical weapons were stored in this area. They were also in the woods at Kiplin Hall, near Scorton, North Yorkshire, which the RAF took over.

Ron Young, Thornaby-on-Tees.