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James Brewer says it was a scary time.

It was exactly seventy years that Britain declared war on Germany and it was the start of nearly six years of military conflict which changed the lives of millions forever.

James was just one among those. He was 14-years-old when war first broke out. At that time he was working at a forge in Horbury, Wakefield.

He says he still remembers the announcement on the radio that war had been declared by the then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

He says: "I can remember listening to it, yes, that was a long while ago.  At that time I already had a brother who was in the navy, who had joined before. Obviously we were wondering where he was and what he was doing.

"I joined up when I was 17-and-a-half in 1942. I went to New Station Road in Leeds to join. I used to catch a train from Bradford Exchange to Horbury and I used to change trains at Mirfield. It was that foggy one morning and I caught the wrong train and I put it in saying I can't be doing this all the time... So I got out of it and I joined the navy. My first trip was from Leeds to the Malvern Hills and I was in the engine room branch. Their first base was in Malvern.  I went there and the first person I saw when I got into this base was my cousin Tom, and he was the first person I saw."

James says his memories of his first months in the Navy are still clear, even after seventy years. 

He says: "Getting out, it was terrible. I did six months training from Portsmouth and from there I went to Plymouth and from there we went up to Iceland and from there we joined the convoys, the merchant navy ships that were going to Russia. As far as I'm concerned those merchant navy men did a marvellous job. They don't get the recognition that they should do...some of those ships when they got up to the Arctic, keeled over and lost a lot of the men and not only that, they had to suffer the submarine aircraft coming out from nowhere and bombing them."

Neville Chamberlain announces the breakout of war

James remembers it as a very tough time: "When you think of the conditions, one of the first things you had to do was chip of the ice. Eight inch guns and like I say some of the ships there were old, and therefore they weren't very strong...they had no chance."

What was his view on Germany back then? Did he have an opinion?

He says, candidly, no: "You didn't think about things like that. Fortunately or unfortunately I was in the engine room in a ship, which is four decks down and so I was under the water anyway. All you heard were bangs and thuds. You didn't really know what was going off up above you. The seamen and the gunners, they did, they could see what was happening and knew what was happening, but when you were down in the engine room, you haven't a clue, all you could hear were bangs, thuds and explosions. That's all you could hear."

Attacks on ships were a constant threat

Seventy years on, what would his message be for those who haven't experienced war at first hand?

He speaks honestly: "They should remember that war is absolutely stupid and why the hell people fight... I don't know. I can say this, the Government nowadays they haven't got a clue what went on.  They should think about these lads who are still fighting and ask why are they doing it? They should look into it properly and try their best to stop all these stupid wars."

He goes on: "There is nothing pleasant about it. They don't ask how many times you've cried, or how many times you've lost control of your bowels and your bladder, they don't ask you that. At the same time you don't want to tell them. My girls ask me many times, 'What was it like dad?' and I wouldn't tell them I don't want them to know. I don't want to tell them.

"Any man who's really experienced it, won't talk about it. He'll tell you the good times he's had, if he had any at all, but won't tell you anything else. He will keep quite and keep it to himself."

Based on an original interview by BBC Radio Leeds' Steve Bailey on the Big Drive Home, from 4pm - 7pm. Click below to hear the interview in full.