Sitting in his kitchen in Minchinhampton, an unassuming 98-year-old gentleman tells a story of war time heroics. Victor Shellard, who turns 99 next month, joined the British Expeditionary Force at the age of 20 and served in the Second World War. At one point he had to defend his band of brothers from the Luftwaffe during the battle of Dunkirk with just a machine gun. Matt Bass takes up the story.

IT was June 1, 1940. The fighting was raging, bullets were flying overhead, planes were swooping and there was violence and chaos all around - they may have been on a beach but no one was having any fun.

After only six months of military training, Victor Shellard was sent to fight in Europe.

He joined the 5th Gloucestershire Regiment in September 1939 and headed for France as part of the British Expeditionary Force.

After several months his battalion were pushed back to Dunkirk, where they were guarding General Harold Alexander. They waited on the beaches for the HMS Worcester destroyer ship, which was sent to pick them up.

When the war was declared in September 1939 the BEF were sent to defend France.

After the German invasion in May 1940, the allies were overwhelmed.

Any boats possible from Britain, civilian and military, were sent to Dunkirk to conduct a mass evacuation of troops.

“When we were on the beach we couldn’t leave anything there, any weapons, ammunition or anything on the beach we had to take,” said Victor.

“I found a Bren gun which I took with me.

“When the destroyer arrived, we all rushed on board, it didn’t take very long for that to fill up.

“I had this gun I’d picked up and I was ordered to the top to shoot at the German planes which were attacking us.

“It was then that I realised that the Bren gun I had picked up had no bullets in. Eventually someone found some so that I could fight back.”

Two men either side of Victor were both shot and killed.

“My legs just gave way and I fell down,” said Victor, who had been hit.

He was taken to safety and HMS Worcester sailed off back to Southampton from where Victor was taken to a military hospital in Surrey for treatment for shrapnel wounds.

By the time Victor had recovered, the Expeditionary Force had been disbanded, so he was sent around the UK to train new soldiers.

He moved all over the country from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Derbyshire all the way down to Bath and Cornwall.

Born and raised in Minchinhampton, Victor attended the local school before leaving to work at the Lait bakery aged 14.

At 16 he moved to London, a small-town lad going to the big city, working for J Sainsburys in Wembley. He found the move rather amusing in hindsight but maybe not so much at the time.

“When I got there I was a bit lost, I’d just come from a village in the countryside - and now I was in the capital,” he said, “I didn’t know my way around, and there were all these people.

“I asked someone why there were so many people, and he laughed and said it’s cup final day, didn’t you know?”

He laughed as he said about moving to Wembley on the busiest possible day to do so.

It was in London that Victor met Kathleen and the couple married on July 19, 1941 at Kingsbury Church in north west London.

They had four children - Daphne, Rosemary and twins Vic and Pauline.

At almost 99-years-old he is the proud grandfather of eight and has 15 great grandchildren. After he left the army in 1946, Victor worked in the building trade.

One of his passions has always been his garden.

Right up to the age of 97, every year he would be growing plants and food.

Victor’s son beamed: “We would always have fresh vegetables, he’d grow everything out there.”

With his growing family around him, Victor will celebrate his 99th birthday on October 30.

From fighting the Luftwaffe to moving to London at 16, Victor has always been strong willed and committed to everything he’s done.

His greatest reward however has been his large loving family.