He was just 14 years old when the announcement rang out over the workshop floor on September 3, 1939. Britain was at war.
John Henry Meller counted down the moments till he could run home to his parents Ada and Herbert, desperate to hear their take on the dreadful news.
For the lad had grown up in a household where the prospect of war on a global scale was far too awful to fathom. His father Herbert and Uncle Ernie Miller had fought in World War One and John, who grew up in Warrington, had heard enough stories by then to know another bloody conflict was the last thing anyone wanted.
“Throughout my childhood I’d heard all about the many horrors of war,” says great-grandfather John, now 97.
“All those men had fought for so long and so many lives had been lost that by the time they came home they felt they never wanted anything like that to happen again. They felt nothing could be worth the world going to war once again.”
And yet of course it did. And John himself, despite the lessons of his childhood, joined the fight. Three years after the outbreak of war, on his 18th birthday after quitting his job working on aircraft avionics at Burtonwood Airfield in Warrington, he signed up to train with RAF Bomber Command, one of the deadliest places to be during the war. During the whole war a staggering 51% of aircrew were killed on operations, with just 24% surviving unscathed.
Now, as the world holds its breath as Vladimir Putin and his Russian forces launch a terrifying invasion on neighbouring Ukraine, John is praying the conflict doesn’t escalate to the scale of a global war - but says Britain and its allies must be strong in the face of Russian aggression and be prepared for whatever might come next.
“All those years ago everybody thought Hitler would stop at Poland,” says the veteran, who lives near Cardiff. “But of course he kept going. As one who lived through a World War the thought of another is abhorrent, but unfortunately bullies don’t respond well to a slap on the wrist. It is vital that Britain and our allies around the world are prepared for every possibility.”
As much as the prospect of war had appalled John and his family back in 1939, by the time he signed up three years later, like so many others across the world he believed the prospect of not fighting back was more terrifying than war itself.
“Before we went through the training we were warned that our chances of survival on the Lancaster Bombers was 50/50, that a lot of the lads came down in a ball of fire and that even the ones who survived could be heavily burned,” recalls John, who along with daughter Caroline Brownbill has written a book, The Boy With Only One Shoe, about his memories of the war.
“But by the time I signed up I knew the threat would be greater if we didn’t fight back. I knew that invasion by the Nazis would mean so much worse was to come. It would mean losing our lifestyle completely. Being ruled by a dictator.
“By then I had worked alongside Polish men who had fled from Hitler, and I’d heard first hand the stories they had to tell. Then, as now, there were people who said the stories weren’t true, that much of it was propaganda. But I’d spoken to these people. I’d worked alongside them and listened to their stories of the atrocities they had seen first hand. I knew it was real and when I realised these things could happen on British soil, the fear of what will happen to you as an individual just goes, and you will simply do your best to stop it.”
And as the eyes of the world remain fixed on developments in Ukraine, John, who has been married to wife Barbara for 73 years, says the West must brace itself for what comes next.
“The trouble is that once war is declared by other countries there is no going back, and while World War Two ended with atomic warfare, the worst possible scenario is that a war now could begin that way. I believe it’s right that Western governments and authorities are trying to persist with sanctions and stopping supplies.
“The pressure must be huge, and we must all pray for peace. I know that I certainly am, along with my family, for peace and for the people of Ukraine. But the Western countries must be thoroughly prepared for any eventuality.
“In 1938, Neville Chamberlain told the British people there would be peace in our time, that we could negotiate our way through worrying developments in Europe and that there would be no need for conflict.
“Of course that’s what everyone wished for, and what I pray for now. But we need to be strong against a figure like Putin, and we must be prepared.”
The Boy With Only One Shoe, by John H Meller and Caroline Brownbill, is available at Amazon.
