'I lied about my age to fight in World War Two'

BBC News

08-05-2025

'I lied about my age to fight in WW2'
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Joshua Askew
BBC News, South East
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Bob Piper says he still thinks about all the boys who died during the war
A 99-year-old D-Day veteran has told BBC Radio Sussex he lied to enlist in the army during World War Two.
Bob Piper, from Southwater, joined the Home Guard at the outbreak of fighting when he was 14 years old.
He later joined the Royal Sussex regiment when he was underage after being told by a recruitment officer to say he was 18.
Mr Piper - soon to celebrate his 100th birthday - was later transferred to the Royal Signal Regiment and arrived on mainland Europe one week after D-Day.
In the Home Guard, he spent time patrolling beaches, guarding airfields and looking after the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk at Arundel Castle as there was a fear at the time the Germans might try and "snatch" members of the royals.
Mr Piper's stories from Europe were among those the Ministry of Defence shared when it highlighted the exploits of the D-Day veterans on the 80th anniversary of the landings last year.
Family handout
Bob Piper with his son (pictured)
When Victory in Europe was declared, Mr Piper said he was still deployed in war-torn Germany.
"There was no jollification," he told BBC Radio Sussex. "We were inundated with German POWs."
The 99-year-old said people who had been sent by the Germans to work in the country were trying to get home, while German civilians were also trying to flee the advancing Russian army.
"There were thousands and thousands of people that had to be looked after," he said.
"It ended up instead of fighting everybody, you were trying to organise and feed them."
Mr Piper, who sat behind the King at VE Day celebrations in London on Monday, said he will go to a service at Westminster Abbey to mark the occasion on Thursday.
7:03
The vet that met the King
"I think about the boys that never came home," he told the BBC.
"I often say that the children today should go out and stand in the middle of a cemetery. This is the price of the freedom that we have today. It's not money, but look around at those headstones."
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