I am a nobody, says war hero Dennis, 99, to grateful aircrew

GROUND Radio Operator Dennis Bishop, 99, was baffled at being the centre of attention yesterday as he met aircrew preparing for Monday's flypast to celebrate the 80th anniversary week of VE Day.

- Conor Wilson

He has lived quietly since his RAF service, choosing anonymity with his wife and two children in the Oxfordshire countryside, but at nearby RAF Brize Norton he is the person everyone wants to talk to.

Standing aboard a modern RAF cargo plane, he was asked about his wartime experience. He said: “It is overwhelming, I didn't expect any of this, I am a nobody.”

Few, if any, would describe Dennis as a nobody but humility is a common trait amongst the remaining heroes of the Second World War.

Supported only by a cane, the humble hero, who saw action in France, Belgium, Germany and Africa, vividly remembers hearing Germany had surrendered. He said: “I was instantly thinking about coming home. I was in Germany, in a place called Detmold, and I just wanted peace and I just wanted to come home.

"When I finally arrived home after travelling the world, I got off the bus it was about seven o'clock in the morning - I put my suitcase down and I kissed the ground and I said, 'I am home'.”

Dennis joined the RAF aged just 17 in 1942 as the conflict intensified following the Battle of Britain. The horrors being faced by aircrew were well known by then.