08-05-2025
Vladimir Putin asked brutal question by 99-year-old World War II Veteran
Henry Rice served in World War II but he is now scared we are heading for a repeat of history
A war veteran whose ship was missed by a torpedo by feet just days before VE Day says he is 'frightened' as he can see a World War erupting once again. Vladimir Putin asked brutal question by 99-year-old World War II Veteran, 99, from Cranleigh in Surrey, was a Royal Navy signalman who very nearly didn't see VE Day.
He was on lookout patrol on HMS Eastway two weeks before Germany surrendered, when he spotted the wake of a Torpedo heading towards them in the Bristol Channel. Luckily their bow of the ship was flat bottomed and they survived unscathed. Nothing much shakes the veteran after all his wartime exploits, but he told The Mirror: 'I'm frightened. It could happen again.
'What really worries me is in our living times, we've had these wars, we've had thousands of people killed. Mr Putin lost millions of people. What does he want? Haven't they learnt their lesson from this?
'I am lucky because of my age, I am not going to live long enough to see any future problem with the world but my sons and grandsons - as with every other family in the world - are going to grow up and possibly at the age of 18, 19 and 20, get called up and we will go through this once again.
'Please, won't somebody really learn? Somebody has got to learn. I can remember the war years, I don't want them, they frighten me.
'I can't see it not what worries me, frightens me.
'In living memory we have been through this, surely someone must learn from this?'
In June 2023, Henry was presented with the Legion of Honour by President Emmanuel Macron, France's highest decoration.
Henry from Guildford, Surrey, volunteered to serve with the Royal Navy on his 17th birthday and got his papers within six months.
On his third day of his training he was in the classroom learning about anchors and cables.
'I was in there half an hour when the door opened and a naval officer walked in said the magic words '12 volunteers' please. Nobody moved obviously.
'He then indicated you six, you six. He said at midday there's a lorry outside 'get on it'. The next day I found myself in Liverpool on a boat to the Isle of Man, where for three months I did a training course on semaphore and lights morse.
'I can still remember it now. I can do 'I love you'. They were very slow flashes at the beginning but as the time went on I realised you ignored some of the words and only used the big ones.'
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Henry says he had a 'lucky' war: 'I only had two close calls. We had a problem in the Mediterranean with aircraft and coming up the British Channel at the end of the war.
'I saw HMS Bulldog, a famous destroyer, with a big black flag flying. That big black flag said; 'I'm in contact with enemy submarine.'
'Then I saw a white plume of water coming towards us and realised it was a torpedo. It went under the bows and missed us by feet and that was the end of my war.
'I was dozing merrily I suppose and I never did report this plume of water a few feet away, that went straight under our bows. That submarine was sunk by HMS Bulldog. The secret may have been we were basically flat bottomed. '
Henry said their close call in Bristol, everyone on board HMS Eastway was on high alert as they headed for Newcastle, arriving the day before VE Day.
He heard the news Germany had surrendered when a booming voice came over the ship's loud speaker: 'Do you hear there? Do you hear there? Germany has surrendered.'
'I just carried on as normal. I was a signalman and all my duties were carried out on the bridge with a pair of binoculars scanning the horizon. It does bother me a tiny bit now because I've tried to contact anyone who was crew then, because I never really met them.
'When we got into Newcastle there was a flurry of activity with members of the crew putting on their best dress but the order came 'no shore leave'. 'I stood on the bridge in the docks and could only see a few people being happy. I never viewed the streets, people laughing, kissing and dancing.'
They were given cold weather gear and they set sail, ending up in Singapore where they arrived in time to hear the Japanese had surrendered too.
Eventually Henry boarded the HMS Formidable and arrived back in Portsmouth in October 1946. He worked on liners before joining the fire brigade where he did 26 and a half years.
'I went on to have a fantastic life. I got married, had two sons, three grandsons and five great grandsons. The Royal Navy made me a man, made me proud of myself and proud of the Royal Navy. I feel grateful for the Royal Navy and the war for making me what I am today. I am comfortable and happy and confident and I am not a hero. I just did the job just like the rest of the crew. I was lucky some of the guys I knew were torpedoed.'
