VE Day 80: Chelsea Pensioners tell their WWII stories
Immaculately dressed pensioners offer us a polite "good morning" as we walk through the grounds.Discipline, from a life of military service continues into retirement. So too, the camaraderie - extending to an unofficial buddy system between the oldest and youngest.Jo Molendo, head of in-pensioner welfare, says: "They might have served with a 20 or 30-year difference but the regimental tie is strong and they will support a fellow veteran from that regiment, no matter what."
So when John Morris, currently the oldest Chelsea Pensioner, arrives promptly for his interview, he is accompanied by 73-year-old, Charlie, jovially helping him along. John turned 103 on the day we visited."I gave myself the nickname, 'Cat' Morris because I thought I had nine lives," he says.Perhaps his first was used while part of the Anti-Aircraft Battery during London's Blitz. He was called up, a boy of 17, when World War Two broke out."I went right through the Battle of Britain and then the Blitz moved to other parts. Weston-super-Mare - that was bombed very badly. I remember I helped bring out the dead bodies from the houses that had been blitzed."After transferring to the Essex Regiment, John was sent to Algiers."They sat me on top of a flat-topped building to fire at any shooters coming over, trying to bomb us. It was a very hairy job, that was," he admits.John was hospitalised with hepatitis before being caught up in March 1944 in the last major eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy - and then volunteered to join the Raiding Support Regiment, a branch of the Special Air Service (SAS)."When I joined the Special Forces, I didn't expect to come back alive. When you're with that sort of operation, you know you're living on death's door all the time. But being young and stupid, I used to volunteer for anything."John survived the war relatively unscathed, but rues that thousands of others were not so fortunate.It is these World War Two veterans and their incredible stories that we think about on VE Day. In the hospital courtyard, a huddle of younger Chelsea Pensioners talk of them with reverence."The friends that they lost - and what they saw - you just respect them and feel for them," says Denise Williams, who at 66 is the youngest pensioner.Bill Horsburgh, 84, adds: "You've got to give them respect and admiration for what they did - and especially for the guys, and girls, who didn't come home. They're the real heroes."
Weeks before the war ended, Brian Howarth, 99, parachuted over the Rhine into Germany."It was a terrible drop - the people that were killed and planes on fire - I think there were 20% casualties," he remembers.Having survived the advance, he was wounded a few days later. "I felt something. A bang in my stomach, you know? And I said, 'I've been hit.'"The soldier he was with at the time was shot in the chest and killed.Brian went by ambulance plane back to England and was treated at Nottingham General Hospital."I had penicillin. You see, penicillin wasn't allowed for civilians - it had only just come out - but it was allowed for military. And I think it saved my life."So he was in hospital on VE Day, in a ward with windows behind each bed."The nurses came round and they gave us a mirror to hold over our heads so we could look through the window at the crowds below. They were dancing and really enjoying themselves."As 85-year-old Tony Judge observes, the effort to win the war involved many people."My mother, at 14 years old, was member of a searchlight crew here in London," the Chelsea Pensioner says. "They just needed everybody to do something - and everybody did."
Harry Wright, 94, was a primary school-aged child when an incendiary bomb dropped through the roof of his home."Fortunately, it didn't fully engage. I was standing there with my father and mother, looking at this thing," he says. "My father dealt with it and all was well. That is something I remember and I haven't forgotten that for all those years."Harry, who was a 14-year-old Army apprentice on VE Day, actually remembers it as a quiet event."When I see it on the television, I'm amazed - absolutely surprised - the volume of people and behaviour. But consider what happened in the past six years from '39 to '45 - and what people had to endure."It's no wonder the eruption when it was announced."Harry became a sought-after helicopter expert during his years in the military, for which he received a British Empire Medal. He wears the honour with remarkable humility.Jonny Lowe, head of veterans outreach, says: "What I particularly love about that generation is that there's a complete lack of ego - it's quite selfless."What they did was in defence of this country, directly."Those who lived through World War Two are dwindling in number as the years go by. But they pass their stories to the next generation of pensioners within the walls of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.As Chelsea Pensioner, Barbara Whilds, 81, says: "It's what this place is about - memories."
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Wetin hapun for Hiroshima 80 years ago? Survivors speak of disfigurement, shame and pain
At 08:15 on August 6, 1945, Lee Jung-soon bin dey on her way to elementary school, wen nuclear bomb bin fall like stone through di skies ova Hiroshima. Ms Lee wey be 88-year-old now wave her hands as if she dey try erase di memory. "My father bin dey on im way to work, but suddenly e run back to wia we dey and tell us to evacuate immediately," she recall. "Dead body full di road – but I bin dey so shocked all I remember na say I dey cry. I just dey cry and cry." Di body of victims "melt na only dia eyes bin", Ms Lee tok, as blast wey equal to 15,000 tons of TNT cover di city of 420,000 pipo. Wetin remain after na dead bodies wey scata beyond identification. "Di atomic bomb… na terrifying weapon." E don reach 80 years since di United States bin detonate 'Little Boy', humanity first-ever atomic bomb, ova di centre of Hiroshima, wey instantly kill some 70,000 pipo. Tens of thousands die in di coming months from radiation sickness, burns and dehydration. Di devastation wey di bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – cause na im bring about di decision to end both World War Two and Japanese imperial rule across large areas of Asia. One fact wey pipo no too sabi na say about 20% of di immediate victims na Koreans. Korea bin dey part of Japanese colony for 35 years wen di bomb drop. Estimated 140,000 Koreans bin dey live for Hiroshima at di time - many pipo bin move go dia sake of forced labour mobilisation, or to survive under colonial exploitation. Those wey survive di atom bomb, plus dia descendants, still dey live for di long shadow of dat day – dem dey deal wit disfigurement, pain, and years of fight for justice wey dem still neva solve. "Nobody take responsibility," Shim Jin-tae, one 83-year-old survivor tok. "Not di kontri wey drop di bomb. Not di kontri wey fail to protect us. America no eva apologise. Japan pretend like say dem no know. Korea no beta. Dem just pass di blame - and we dey left alone." Mr Shim now dey live for Hapcheon, South Korea: one small county wey as e become home to dozens of survivors like im and Ms Lee, dem nickname am "Korea Hiroshima". For Ms Lee, di shock of dat day neva fade – e dey inside her body as sickness. Now she dey live wit skin cancer, Parkinson disease, and angina, one condition wey poor blood flow to di heart dey cause, e dey typically manifest as chest pain. But wetin dey painful pass na say di pain no stop wit her. Her son Ho-chang, wey dey support her, dey diagnosed wit kidney failure and e dey undergo dialysis as e dey wait for transplant. "I believe say na sake of di radiation exposure, but who fit prove am?" Ho-chang Lee tok. "E dey hard to verify scientifically – you go need genetic testing, wey dey exhausting and expensive." Di Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) tell BBC say dem don gada genetic data between 2020 and 2024 and go continue further studies until 2029. Dem go "consider expanding di definition of victims" to second- and- third-generation survivors only "if di results dey statistically significant", dem tok. Di Korean angle Out of di 140,000 Koreans wey bin dey live for Hiroshima at di time of di bombing, many of dem bin come from Hapcheon. Surrounded by mountains wit little farmland, na difficult place to live. Japanese occupiers bin seize dia crops, drought destroy di land, and thousands of pipo comot di rural kontri go Japan during di war. Dem force some to join di military; dem deceive odas wit promise say "dem fit chop three square meals a day and send dia children to school." But for Japan, Koreans na second-class citizens – dem dey often give dem di hardest, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs. Oga Shim tok say im father bin work for one factory as forced labourer, while im mother dey hammer nails into wooden ammunition crates. After di bomb, dis distribution of labour bin turn into dangerous and often deadly work for Koreans for Hiroshima. Outcasts for house "Korean workers get to clean up body of dead pipo," Oga Shim, wey be di director of di Hapcheon branch of di Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, tell BBC Korean. "At first, dem dey use stretchers, but di bodies too many. Dem later come dey use dustpans to gada corpses and dey burn dem for schoolyards. "Na mostly Koreans do dis work. Na us do most of di post-war clean-up and munitions work." According to one study wey Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation carry out, dem force some survivors to clear di remains and recover bodies. While Japanese evacuees run go wia dia relatives dey, Koreans wey no get local ties remain for di city, exposed to di radioactive fallout – and wit limited access to medical care. A combination of dis conditions - poor treatment, hazardous work and structural discrimination - all contribute to di extremely high death toll among Koreans. According to di Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, Korean fatality rate na 57.1%, compared to di overall rate of about 33.7%. About 70,000 Koreans bin dey exposed to di bomb. By di end of dat year, about 40,000 pipo die.
BBC News
13 hours ago
- BBC News
The BBC visits the Korean survivors of the Hiroshima bomb
At 08:15 on August 6, 1945, as a nuclear bomb was falling like a stone through the skies over Hiroshima, Lee Jung-soon was on her way to elementary now-88-year-old waves her hands as if trying to push the memory away."My father was about to leave for work, but he suddenly came running back and told us to evacuate immediately," she recalls. "They say the streets were filled with the dead – but I was so shocked all I remember is crying. I just cried and cried."Victims' bodies "melted away so only their eyes were visible", Ms Lee says, as a blast equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT enveloped a city of 420,000 people. What remained in the aftermath were corpses too mangled to be identified."The atomic bomb… it's such a terrifying weapon."It's been 80 years since the United States detonated 'Little Boy', humanity's first-ever atomic bomb, over the centre of Hiroshima, instantly killing some 70,000 people. Tens of thousands more would die in the coming months from radiation sickness, burns and devastation wrought by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which brought a decisive end to both World War Two and Japanese imperial rule across large swaths of Asia – has been well-documented over the past eight well-known is the fact that about 20% of the immediate victims were had been a Japanese colony for 35 years when the bomb was dropped. An estimated 140,000 Koreans were living in Hiroshima at the time - many having moved there due to forced labour mobilisation, or to survive under colonial who survived the atom bomb, along with their descendants, continue to live in the long shadow of that day – wrestling with disfigurement, pain, and a decades-long fight for justice that remains unresolved. "No-one takes responsibility," says Shim Jin-tae, an 83-year-old survivor. "Not the country that dropped the bomb. Not the country that failed to protect us. America never apologised. Japan pretends not to know. Korea is no better. They just pass the blame - and we're left alone."Mr Shim now lives in Hapcheon, South Korea: a small county which, having become the home of dozens of survivors like he and Ms Lee, has been dubbed "Korea's Hiroshima".For Ms Lee, the shock of that day has not faded - it etched itself into her body as illness. She now lives with skin cancer, Parkinson's disease, and angina, a condition stemming from poor blood flow to the heart, which typically manifests as chest what weighs more heavily is that the pain didn't stop with her. Her son Ho-chang, who supports her, was diagnosed with kidney failure and is undergoing dialysis while awaiting a transplant."I believe it's due to radiation exposure, but who can prove it?" Ho-chang Lee says. "It's hard to verify scientifically - you'd need genetic testing, which is exhausting and Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) told the BBC that it had gathered genetic data between 2020 and 2024 and would continue further studies until 2029. It would "consider expanding the definition of victims" to second- and- third-generation survivors only "if the results are statistically significant", it said. The Korean toll Of the 140,000 Koreans in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, many were from by mountains with little farmland, it was a difficult place to live. Crops were seized by the Japanese occupiers, droughts ravaged the land, and thousands of people left the rural country for Japan during the war. Some were forcibly conscripted; others were lured by the promise that "you could eat three meals a day and send your kids to school."But in Japan, Koreans were second-class citizens – often given the hardest, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs. Mr Shim says his father worked in a munitions factory as a forced labourer, while his mother hammered nails into wooden ammunition the aftermath of the bomb, this distribution of labour translated into dangerous and often fatal work for Koreans in Hiroshima. "Korean workers had to clean up the dead," Mr Shim, who is the director of the Hapcheon branch of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, tells BBC Korean. "At first they used stretchers, but there were too many bodies. Eventually, they used dustpans to gather corpses and burned them in schoolyards.""It was mostly Koreans who did this. Most of the post-war clean-up and munitions work was done by us."According to a study by the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, some survivors were forced to clear rubble and recover bodies. While Japanese evacuees fled to relatives, Koreans without local ties remained in the city, exposed to the radioactive fallout – and with limited access to medical care.A combination of these conditions - poor treatment, hazardous work and structural discrimination - all contributed to a disproportionately high death toll among to the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, the Korean fatality rate was 57.1%, compared to the overall rate of about 33.7%.About 70,000 Koreans were exposed to the bomb. By year's end, some 40,000 had died. Outcasts at home After the bombings, which led to Japan's surrender and Korea's subsequent liberation, about 23,000 Korean survivors returned home. But they were not welcomed. Branded as disfigured or cursed, they faced prejudice even in their homeland."Hapcheon already had a leper colony," Mr Shim explains. "And because of that image, people thought the bomb survivors had skin diseases too."Such stigma made survivors stay silent about their plight, he adds, suggesting that "survival came before pride".Ms Lee says she saw this "with her own eyes"."People who were badly burned or extremely poor were treated terribly," she recalls. "In our village, some people had their backs and faces so badly scarred that only their eyes were visible. They were rejected from marriage and shunned."With stigma came poverty, and hardship. Then came illnesses with no clear cause: skin diseases, heart conditions, kidney failure, cancer. The symptoms were everywhere - but no-one could explain time, the focus shifted to the second and third generations. Han Jeong-sun, a second-generation survivor, suffers from avascular necrosis in her hips, and can't walk without dragging herself. Her first son was born with cerebral palsy."My son has never walked a single step in his life," she says. "And my in-laws treated me horribly. They said, 'You gave birth to a crippled child and you're crippled too—are you here to ruin our family?'"That time was absolute hell."For decades, not even the Korean government took active interest in its own victims, as a war with the North and economic struggles were treated as higher wasn't until 2019 - more than 70 years after the bombing - that MOHW released its first fact-finding report. That survey was mostly based on response to BBC inquiries, the ministry explained that prior to 2019, "There was no legal basis for funding or official investigations".But two separate studies had found that second-generation victims were more vulnerable to illness. One, from 2005, showed that second-generation victims were far more likely than the general population to suffer depression, heart disease and anaemia, while another from 2013 found their disability registration rate was nearly double the national this backdrop, Ms Han is incredulous that authorities keep asking for proof to recognise her and her son as victims of Hiroshima."My illness is the proof. My son's disability is the proof. This pain passes down generations, and it's visible," she says. "But they won't recognise it. So what are we supposed to do - just die without ever being acknowledged?" Peace without apology It was only last month, on July 12, that Hiroshima officials visited Hapcheon for the first time to lay flowers at a memorial. While former PM Hatoyama Yukio and other private figures had come before, this was the first official visit by current Japanese officials."Now in 2025 Japan talks about peace. But peace without apology is meaningless," says Junko Ichiba, a long-time Japanese peace activist who has spent most of her life advocating for Korean Hiroshima points out, the visiting officials gave no mention or apology for how Japan treated Korean people before and during World War Two. Although multiple former Japanese leaders have offered their apologies and remorse, many South Koreans regard these sentiments as insincere or insufficient without formal Ichiba notes that Japanese textbooks still omit the history of Korea's colonial past - as well as its atomic bomb victims – saying that "this invisibility only deepens the injustice".This adds to what many view as a broader lack of accountability for Japan's colonial Jeong-gu, director of the Red Cross's support division, said, "These issues... must be addressed while survivors are still alive. For the second and third generations, we must gather evidence and testimonies before it's too late."For survivors like Mr Shim it's not just about being compensated – it's about being acknowledged."Memory matters more than compensation," he says. "Our bodies remember what we went through… If we forget, it'll happen again. And someday, there'll be no one left to tell the story."
Scotsman
19 hours ago
- Scotsman
Claim your free VE Day silver coin from the London Mint Office
You can only order one per household, because of the current demand | London Mint Office This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement. The London Mint Office is giving away silver VE Day coins to mark 80 years since victory – and they're completely free. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Commemorative coins that depict pivotal moments in the nation's history can be incredibly expensive. Rarities snapped up by collectors can make shrewd investments, and increase steadily in value over the years. But you don't need to spend hundreds of pounds to be in with a chance of owning a piece of history forged from silver, and featuring a design that pays homage to a landmark moment. In fact, you don't need to spend any money at all, because this special VE Day commemorative coin is free. OK, so you've got to cover the cost of postage, but it's only £2.50. Otherwise, this is a genuine "gift to the nation". The coin is also available in gold, but you'll need to pay £29.99 | London Mint Office Tucked away on the London Mint Office website, this special half crown marks the moment, on May 8 1945, the nation celebrated as Victory in Europe was declared, bringing an end to six long years of war. Streets were filled with singing, dancing, and emotional reunions - but for many, it was also a day of reflection and remembrance for lives lost. Now, 80 years later, you can honour the courage and sacrifice of those who fought on the frontlines and supported the war effort at home with this commemorative coin. Because of the high demand, they are restricted to just one of each per household. To apply to order one, you need to visit the London Mint Office website and fill in a small online form. You can opt in or out of receiving future correspondence from the London Mint Office, and the coin will be on its way to you. Click here to find out more. Canva Is your surname a clue to Viking ancestry? Start tracing your Norse roots now £ 29.00 Buy now Buy now Think you're purely British? You might be surprised. Many people across the UK – especially in northern England, Scotland and coastal areas – still carry surnames with strong Viking origins, passed down from Norse settlers who didn't just raid, they stayed. Names like Gunn, Thoresen, Croft and Skene hint at a warrior past and a shared history stretching back over 1,000 years. We've listed 30 surnames with deep Viking links – check the full list in the article here. Want to take things further? MyHeritage DNA makes it easy to build your family tree and explore your ancestry. For just £33, you can uncover your genetic links to Scandinavia and the Viking age. Your surname might be just the beginning! Raylo Business Why UK businesses are ditching tech ownership – and saving thousands (aff) £ 2.49 Wowcher Buy now Buy now Top-of-the-range laptops, tablets and smartphones can quickly rack up costs – but smart businesses are skipping the big upfront payments and switching to flexible leasing instead. Raylo Business makes it easy for SMEs to stay up to date with the latest tech, from iPhones to MacBooks, with fixed low monthly payments and no hefty outlay. Lease terms start from just 12 months and include upgrade options at the end, or the freedom to return the device. With smartphones from £2.49/month and iPads from just £7.49/month, it's a simple way to keep your team equipped without breaking the bank. Explore all the latest Apple and Samsung options, plus full pricing and terms, over on the Raylo Business site.
