Thread by @arctotherium42

'The Unknown Warriors' (2006) is a collection of WWII veteran's views on modern Britain gathered via newspaper ad. So what did WWII veterans think of the 2006 UK? They hated it; 134 responses were negative vs only 6 positive (plus 31 N/A and 13 neutral). Excerpts below.

The below is typical (from a D-Day veteran): "I am absolutely disgusted with the way things are turning out... and sometimes wonder if it was worth all the suffering of a war."

"I have many, many misgivings on how matters have turned out. Problems seem to be resolved, by more and more legislation, instead of action at the source... What many veterans abhor, is the acceptance of homosexuality as the norm."

"Some of the things today that I and a lot of my veteran friends disagree with are same sex marriages, school girl mothers, rubbish TV programmes, so called celebrities, and most of all, unlimited immigration. I am very unhappy about the way this country is being transformed."

"My wife and I often say we are glad that we are the age that we are, and she goes as far as saying that if we were younger we would emigrate!"

"It’s a pity Hitler did not get here... If I had my time over again, I would never had gone, so would many others I have spoken to."

Still, a few veterans were positive. "How would of my fallen comrades find post-war Britain? No doubt, like myself, the best country to live in."

"I am glad I am 85 and not 18. So much of what Enoch Powell said has proved right. Unfortunately, I think there is worse to come. This is not the country I fought for. If I were younger I think I would seriously consider emigrating, sad isn’t it?"

"[Britain] is not the same and has lost it’s culture, character, and social cohesion. Without doubt due to uncontrolled immigration of different ethnic groups, religions and cultures and we are no longer a powerful nation..."

"Ask my opinion of India for 3 years duration, it is hard to describe, but filthy seems best and to think we have allowed them to come here and stay in our country... What I think of young ******* I can’t describe. Immigration is out of control."

Some war stories I hadn't heard before, like the Japanese prisoners who hung themselves with bandages. I've seen people try to argue that the WWII Japanese military wasn't unusually fanatical even by WWII standards; those people are nuts.

"I say its a pity Hitler did not get here, with the state of the country today. Send them all back, with half of our current Government... I could not recommend my worst enemy to come to Britain to live, (England you have had it)."

"I can only say I am glad I am at the end of my life and not the beginning, but I have real worries for my granddaughter and great granddaughter as to how they will survive. One of the worst things we ever did was to join the Common Market in my opinion."

"I enclose copies of some letters that I have sent to the local paper criticising government control of our lives in the last few years... All ineffective when our democratic rights only entitle us to a vote every 5 years despite the developments in speedy communication.

"As for today, this is not the country that people of my generation risked all for... Our elected Parliament is hamstrung by rules and regulations dreamt up by unelected bureaucrats in Belgium."

"We feel that we are foreigners in our towns and cities. It is no longer a ‘country fit for heroes’... I am afraid Mr Churchill (and Nelson) would turn in his grave. We feel all our war efforts were for nothing."

"I end with the E.U. For many years I grew an F1 tomato from a seed company. One year it didn’t appear in the cat, so I wrote to them. They replied that Brussels had stopped them being sold along with many other varieties. Why? Why?"

"I am now retired and in my 80’s. It is very sad to see this country being run and taken over by foreigners who have no right or business to be here at all. Successive governments have literally ‘sold us up the river’."

Another positive one.

"[Y]ou feel at times that professing to be a Christian and English - and heterosexual is a criminal offence. The current national activities seem to be sex, drinking, vandalism and violence. And watching the interminable football of course."

"My opinion of this country nowadays, well when asked I invariably quote Enoch Powell when, in 1968 on immigration, he said “The streets will be rivers of blood”... If it were not for family ties I’m sure my wife and I would have emigrated ourselves long ago."

"What can you expect when there is no way anyone is allowed to discipline anyone today or as a Christian country speak our minds so not to offend anyone. Jails are like holiday camps & you get more money by staying home than working."

"I think the other big stick that was used to tie our people’s hands was the case of the Stephen Lawrence murder, plus the Holocaust and women’s rights. I see men let their women make the decisions now to save a lot of arguments. That’s how we have come down the ladder."

List of nine grievances, including degree overproduction (back in 2006).

Another war story. "Perhaps you will see that killing Japs was not only essential but very, very satisfying."

"I spent a good deal of time with my colleagues fighting the dogma of socialism, which has never ceased to build layer upon layer of ideas and doctrine that were useless... Socialist concepts of education have failed for years since 1945."

Another war story - one of the respondents personally knew Freddie Hockley, who was murdered by the Japanese after the surrender.

"Loose sexual behaviour can hardly be a good thing. When the ‘Webbs’, recognised as founders of the Labour Party, extolled ‘sexual freedom’ they did not state how the products (births) of illicit relations should be fed and cared for..."

"I don’t think any of the lads in the prisoner of war camp I was in would take very kindly to [Tony Blair], the way things are going, because all they worked for and went for is now being eroded. This government wants a police state."

"The politicians brag that we have free speech, this is nonsense. We only have free speech so long as what we say they agree to, especially if it regards immigrants or their descendant’s."

(I was stupid enough to believe in the saying “save for a rainy day.”) Thank goodness my grandson is spending his money on the things he wants and does not save. The Government will look after him and his family.

"I’m getting more frustrated with the path my country appears to be taking, i.e. an open door policy on immigration, asylum etc. To accommodate all these races and religions the native Britons are being forced to tone our freedom of speech..."

"[W]e are no longer the homogeneous race which brought us to such high prominence. Who is to blame? I think directly our politicians who considered short term advantages, i.e. money and ignored the long term effects."

"Our cities are more Asian than Calcutta and Pakistan... Blair and his Scots Cronies sould be ‘indicted for treason’. If I could win the lottery I would leave this country to its decomposing. My country not theirs."

"I sing no song for England and wonder why I even tried."

"Most of the women I meet are about my age and we all feel appalled that the Britain we fought for has been swamped by ungrateful immigrants. None of us would again volunteer to help what is left of Britain. A sad thought! We all agree that we would not want to be young again."

"I do feel now though that there is no longer a Gt Britain... The ****** ********* hold us to blackmail with this fanatical suicidal madness and preach hatred of us whilst being on our social service."

"I am not going to comment on our country today, suffice to say that I am a Christian, a patriot, and love my Queen and country, and I say to younger member’s of my family, you will never, ever, know what a lovely country this was, and was it all worth it? NO."

"I feel certain that most of the 50,500+ airmen who gave their lives would have hesitated had they known what a third rate country this has become & such a nanny state... To think that every 7th person in London is Muslim & there are more coloured in Birmingham than white."

"My feeling is that men who offered their lives have been betrayed and the dead gave their lives in vain. Most of the older people, me too, say thank goodness we are at the end of our lives."

"In this part of England (Mid & East Devon) their main aim seems to be a retirement paradise, looking after the environment (which we always have done) and more and more stupid restrictions on such things as house building for local people. "

Another war story. Apparently the Icelanders were vocally pro-Nazi, at least when the British first occupied the island (this is not what the museum in Reykjavik said).

"[The French and Germans] have never forgiven the USA for giving them back their independence!...What do I think about the state of our once green and pleasant land? I’ll tell you, we have become the cesspit of the world..."

Another war story, of a whale surfacing underneath a cruiser escorting Lend-Lease to the USSR.

"We found the Dutch a miserable lot of bastards, they only wanted our money... the Commies came into power in Aug ‘45 under Atlee..."

"EVERYTHING we fought for has been taken from us and given to foreigners, we are now third rate citizens in our own country. Our enemies rule us from Brussels and we are being colonized by *****... What are my main regrets? That I didn’t fight for Hitler..."

"What are the things you love most about England? The English people... Is there any issues in particular that you are not happy with? Yes, the number and type of immigrants flooding into this country. Who will be in charge in 50 years time?"

Interesting POW account (in Poland, liberated by the Russians) of an airbattle in 1945 - a single Focke Wulfe 190 German fighter shooting most of "about 30 Russian bombers" down before running out of ammunition.

An account of being shipped around the world - mentions Arabs in control of "what appeared to be Nubian slaves as oarsmen."

The worst part of serving on the HMS Jamaica escorting Arctic convoys? "Having to fight off the homosexuals."

One woman describes the Americans as being over generous with women who dated them, and the British women collectively deciding not to take too much advantage of the Yanks' good nature.

On the other hand, there's this POW account of another POW's wife cheating on him with an American and him committing suicide on hearing the news.

"If you are ethnic or an immigrant you are looked after, but being 100% British it is hard luck. Many of our comrades who gave their lives must be turning in their graves, all for nothing."

The author also put out the same newspaper call in Australia and New Zealand; overseas veterans were more positive (19 didn't answer the question, 8 were negative, and 3 were positive) than ones still living in Britain.

The major concerns of UK WWII veterans in 2006, in rough order of importance: immigration, crime, the EU, discipline, anti-white discrimination free speech, government control, welfare leeches, lack of veteran's pensions, decline of UK industry, homosexuality, and the Iraq War.

Many UK WWII veterans said they would emigrate if they were younger, or expressed relief that they were old or fear for their (great-)grandchildren's future. Several mentioned Enoch Powell, all positively. Many regretted fighting or wondered why they fought.

What really gets me is this newspaper call went out in 2006 - which was pretty close to the peak of postwar Britain! Imagine what they'd think today, 20 years later, when every problem mentioned has gotten unimaginably worse + two decades of stagnation.