YOU'LL never get survivors of the wartime generation like me coming to terms with Britain being bossed about by the European Union.

The reason is simple. In the war which started 70 years ago yesterday, we not only fought to preserve our freedom but saved countries which are now fellow members of the EU from a terrible fate at the hands of Adolf Hitler.

"If we can stand up to him," Winston Churchill urged us, "all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad sunlit uplands."

To modern minds that might sound a bit over the top. Even Tony Blair would never have come up with a phrase like "broad sunlit uplands". But in 1940 Churchill's speeches inspired the nation.

So what's happened over the decades since that momentous final victory over the Nazis leaves us old codgers in despair. How could our country have changed so much in one lifetime? Why is our hard-won freedom a thing of the past?

After being Europe's saviours we have descended to the level of a vassal state within an almighty EU, stripped of the national pride which served us so well in the war.

National pride? Patriotism? Love of one's country? Unless you're talking about sport, they almost sound like dirty words in today's politically correct society.

Why is it that anyone expressing pride in being British risks being branded racist or a supporter of the BNP?

This is patently ridiculous, but it demonstrates why many people of my age feel betrayed by politicians of all stripes who have conspired to surrender our independence.

Yes, I know the arguments in favour of European unity. They rest mainly on the premise that the EU ensures we'll never again go to war against our neighbours.

That may be true, but to my mind it's a question of how much you are prepared to give up in order to enjoy peace among nations.

I remember Churchill talking about a United States of Europe in the late 1940s. But he didn't mean a European Parliament which made our laws and charged us £40 million a day for the privilege of membership.

Even less likely, I'm sure, would the great war leader have envisaged a European body dominated by the defeated Germans.

Still, as a long-time admirer of Polish people, I was pleased to hear Chancellor Angela Merkel's fulsome apology to Poland, both for the invasion and Germany's devious pact with Russia to carve up the country.

I'll say this for the Germans. They don't try to hide away their hideous war crimes. The younger generation almost wallow in self-recrimination, as I discovered on a visit to the former concentration camp at Belsen.

On the other hand, I recall a German minister complaining about Britain's diet of war films and saying our national image was stuck in 1940. Perhaps he'd been watching Basil Fawlty.

I was sorry to read a letter from a Polish representative saying he was dismayed to meet schoolchildren who didn't know whose side Poland was on in the war. That, I'm afraid, is typical of the woeful lack of knowledge among young people. A whole generation of schoolchildren haven't been encouraged to learn about our past glories.

I'd go so far as to claim there's been deliberate re-writing of history in this respect. I heard of a school video on the war lasting 34 minutes which contained just 14 seconds on Winston Churchill's role.

Those of us who lived through the war must ask ourselves if this week's 70th anniversary means anything to those under 40.

Probably not, but if you've read this far you must have more than a passing interest.

So let me ask you a hypothetical question: if Britain had to go to war today as we did in 1939, who would answer the call and what values would we be fighting for anyway?

See All Our Yesterdays in tomorrow's Sentinel for memories of the Second World War.