World War II hero celebrates 102nd birthday in style fulfilling life-long dream
When a World War II hero faced spending his 102nd birthday on his own, his friend was determined to help him fulfil a life-long dream.
John Morris is the last surviving member of the Raiding Support Regiment, elite special fighters who took part in the campaign to liberate Italy and Yugoslavia.
Eight decades later, John is a Chelsea Pensioner and it had always been a dream of his to go for lunch at the luxury Ritz Hotel in London.
Friend and Irish Guards Charity Ambassador, Friederike Krum, made that dream a reality; the famous venue gave John the full five-star treatment.
“The Ritz always had a wonderful relationship with the Chelsea Pensioners, so they generously said ‘yes, bring John along’,” Friederike explained.
“[We had a] lovely lunch, champagne and celebrated in style”.
Friederike, who is a professional mezzo-soprano opera singer and has performed for royalty, sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to John during the event, accompanied by one of the Ritz’s grand pianos.
In April 2022, John became one of the last people to received a 100th Birthday card from Queen Elizabeth II before she passed away.
John thought the late Queen was “wonderful” and joked “I actually worked longer than she did. She gave up work at 96. I gave up work at 98.”
The wartime hero kindly agreed to share his wartime memories with GB News.
“War is not glamourous,” John explained. “We thought it was actually when we were young.”
Before joining the Special Forces, teenage John Morris began his military service in Sittingbourne, Kent, as part of the 89th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment.
He and his comrades were tasked with shooting down German bombers who were targeting London during the Blitz.
John said: “I joined the Territorial Army when I was 16. I was called up at the outbreak of war on September 9th.”
“We had the old three inch guns…the first ones we had were very antiquated and we used to use open sites. We used to actually try to break up the formation [of the Luftwaffe] so the [British] fighters could get at them.”
John joked: “the only thing I shot down was actually a chimney. A kitchen chimney, accidentally, by mistake. Nobody had any breakfast that morning. I wasn’t very popular”.
John’s brother was a British bomber pilot based in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He was shot down over Germany and spent four and a half years as a prisoner of war.
Afterwards, he moved to South Africa and died five years ago, aged about 96.
John kept in touch with his brother after the war, but never saw him again because he was unable to travel to South Africa.
This week, local children from Christchurch Primary School, near to Royal Hospital Chelsea where John lives, delivered a number of handmade birthday cards to him.
One read: “Dear Mr. Morris. Happy birthday. Thank you for your service to the country. Love from Leonie and Christ Church”.
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John believes it is vital young people are taught about the sacrifices made by older generations.
“I think kids should know more about the sacrifices their forefathers made”, John explained.
“Not me, I’m no hero. But the RAF boys and people like that. They don’t realise that. They don’t know much about it. They don’t even know who Hitler was, half of them.”
In 1943, John was sent to North Africa with the Royal Artillery, and volunteered to join the Special Forces.
“They came around asking for volunteers for the Raiding Support Regiment, which was a branch of the SAS. I, being young and stupid, volunteered.”
John continued: “The SAS tests you. You’re selected. Not many get through.”
Upon passing selection, John went through six weeks of intense training that included parachuting out of a Wellington bomber’s bomb doors.
John fought hard to push the Germans out of North Africa, before turning focus to Italy.
“The Germans really fought very hard, especially on the Tunisia border, the Kasserine Pass, I think it was.”
“A lot of our troops were killed there. The Americans lost a lot of men as well.”
“Italy itself was even worse. 75,000 British or colonial troops were killed in Italy. In Cassino, where I went to visit last year, there was actually 8,000 British killed. 3,000 prisoners of war and 22,000 Germans were killed in three months in Cassino. Heavy casualties.”
Italy surrendered to the allied forces in September 1943, and John remained stationed in Italy.
Months later, John was faced with a much larger (natural) threat when Mt Vesuvius, famous for destroying the Roman town of Pompeii in AD79, erupted with full force.
John recalled: “I woke up in the morning, heard this rumble, looked outside and this wall of lava was coming down. We managed to evacuate, but we were [then ordered back up the mountain] to bring the civilians down. I was scared stiff, to tell you the truth, but the death toll was very low actually. But, a lot of villages were wiped out.”
Meanwhile, allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944.
Widely referred to as D-day, the operation led to the liberation of Western Europe and was one of the most famous and widely praised successes of the war.
Far away in Italy, John and his comrades were branded with a (less than flattering) nickname, now turned into a popular wartime song called ‘D-Day Dodgers’.
John chuckled: “We weren’t on the Western Front. I thought to myself, well, we’d already done three D-days. We did the North African landing, we did the Battle of Britain and we did the Italian Landing. We did Yugoslavia, Albania, and they called us the D-Day Dodgers!”
Despite the successes of World War II, John Morris did have a couple of close shaves.
In Albania, the Germans and Italians had a transit camp for the German troops coming up from Greece.
John’s job was to try and stop the German troops getting to the Russian front.
John explained: ” They sent us out on fighting patrol, and I was taken prisoner with my colleague.”
John and his colleague were taken to an Italian prisoner of war camp, but managed to escape after 24 hours.
“We knew that the Balkan Air Force was going to drop leaflets on the camp the next morning. We told [our captures] that bombs were going to be dropped. So, when the air raid siren sounded, everybody scarpered.”
“All we had was a guard outside where we were being guarded, but my colleague had a little [pistol] hidden in his water bottle. So he managed to get it out, stuck up the guard, made him open the doors. We tied him up and gagged him and managed to escape back to our lines.”
On Christmas Eve 1944, after one too many strong beverages, John and his friend accidentally stumbled into a German occupied village.
John recalled the dramatic moment, which happened in a small village near Dubrovnik: “We lost our way because we’d had a few ‘Rakis’ (Rakija is a fruit brandy), which was a very strong drink over there, and we went through a German held village and the Germans were outside drinking Schnapps on Christmas Eve.”
John’s colleague told him: “Don’t Kill anybody, just far over their heads. You can’t kill anybody on Christmas Eve”.
John and his colleague opened fire over the enemy’s heads, and the German soldiers ran for cover.
The two allied soldiers manages to get back to their lines without being captured.
John Morris told GB News that the Royal Hospital Chelsea is a “fantastic place to live” and the “staff are very good”.
They hosted a separate birthday party for him on Saturday, with his fellow Chelsea Pensioners, a few days before his 102nd birthday.