The last British Dambuster: ‘Don’t call me a hero’

Squadron Leader George ‘Johnny’ Johnson may be the last British survivor of one of the most famous raids of the Second World War, but he has never been comfortable with being called a hero.

“For me, that word doesn’t mean a thing,” the 92-year-old says. “I had a job to do and I did it to the best of my ability, as all of us did. I’m just lucky, firstly, that I got back from the raid and secondly that I’m still living.”

But it is Mr Johnson who is often the focus of continued interest in Operation Chastise – better known as the Dambuster raids – which took place in May 1943.

The operation set out to destroy three dams deep within Germany’s Ruhr valley in order to set back the country’s war effort, a task that was thought near impossible.