And he tells the PM: 'You're wrong to put around this scaremongering'

He says the group of four are

But veterans react angrily, saying the soldiers in the film are 'simply wrong'

He said: 'We would be going backwards not forwards in what we set out to cure after the terrible tragedies of the Second World War'

Falklands veterans are among ex-servicemen who have turned on David Cameron for his 'horrific' decision to wheel out Second World War heroes to make the case for staying in the EU.

A campaign video for the Prime Minister's pro-EU campaign shows four veterans who fought the Nazis making an emotional appeal to voters, saying Brexit would risk the security they fought to protect.

But Major-General Julian Thompson, who led British forces in the recapture of Port Stanley in the Falklands capital, said they were 'simply wrong' because the world is 'totally different' now, while fellow veterans dismissed it as an 'inaccurate propaganda video'.

‘I respect them hugely, they’re the guys who bought our freedom, they fought for us and we should respect what they think, but I'm afraid they’re wrong because the world’s moved on,' he told MailOnline.

Richard Kemp, who commanded forces in Afghanistan, accused the In campaign of 'putting words in their mouths' and said the views in the video are 'very unrepresentative' of ex-servicemen.

Major-General Julian Thompson (pictured right in 2007), who led British forces in the recapture of Port Stanley in the Falklands capital (pictured with a pipe, left, in 1982) said the Second World War veterans in the Britain Stronger In campaign video who urged voters to stay in the EU were 'simply wrong' because they world had 'moved on'

Expressing anger at the Prime Minister for giving his backing of the video and claiming Brexit would leave Britain isolated from the rest of the world, General Thompson added: 'I think Cameron is wrong to put around this scaremongering.

'He talks about isolationism [but] Britain was not isolationist before the Second World War – we joined a French and Russian alliance and fought the Germans and we joined it 10 years before the First World War started.

'I’m afraid Cameron has forgotten his history or was fast asleep getting his history lessons,' he said.

The group of four veterans in the 'Britain is stronger in Europe' video, which includes Lord Brammall, 92, the former head of the Armed Forces, says that a vote to leave on June 23 would jeopardise the sacrifices of the dead.

Big hitter: Lord Bramall, Britain's most decorated living soldier, right in the Second World War, says a Brexit would send Britain backwards not forwards in a new campaign film

Emotive: Harry Leslie Smith, left, who served in the RAF and then was part of occupying force in Hamburg, right, says 'Britain is stronger in Europe'

Meanwhile Harry Leslie Smith, who served in the RAF and then was part of occupying force in Hamburg, says in the video: 'At the age of eighteen I joined the RAF to do my bit for Britain. For me, Britain is stronger in Europe because it reflects the values my generation fought for in Europe during the Second World War.'

But Mr Kemp, who served in the Armed Forces from 1977-2006, told MailOnline: 'I was quite surprised to hear these men talking about how they’d fought for the union.

'I don’t remember any union existing when they were fighting or even being considered when they were fighting.

Escalation: Mr Cameron, pictured today, said a Brexit risks sliding back into conflict and genocide

‘It looks to me as though they have had words put in their mouths, which I think is a shame because they’re all highly distinguished soldiers who we owe a huge amount to so I was surprised to see them put in that position.'

He added: 'I think the majority of soldiers today do not believe they are fighting for the European Union and would be horrified by the might idea they be asked to fight for the European Union.

'They signed up – as those men did in the Second World War – to fight for their country, which is not the EU.'

'I’ve spoken to a number of people who have fought in previous conflicts – the Second World War and since and they all have very different views, they all say that they did not fight for a Europe that is dominated by Germany; they fought for the opposite of that and they did not fight for the country to be governed by undemocratic processes by abroad.

'I would say they are very unrepresentative among people who have served in the forces – either in the Second World War or since.'

A spokesman for the pro-Brexit group Veterans for Britain also reacted angrily to the film and suggested the In campaign had failed to fully explain to the veterans what they were signing up to.

He said: ‘I do think it’s horrific that people who served their country are being wheeled out and the question is: Do they know fully that they are signing up to a project that undermines the autonomy of the UK’s Armed Forces? My suspicion is they don’t and that’s why I think it is horrific.

‘If they’re going to be involving people senior in age, then they need to make clear what they’re signing them up to because what we’ve found quite regularly is when people are aware of the full picture, they don’t like it.’

He said the EU was moving closer and closer towards a common defence policy, which would inevitably lead to an EU army.

The warning comes on the same day as Joseph Daul, president of the biggest political grouping in the European Parliament, said a combined military force in the EU was essential.

To mark Europe Day today, Mr Daul issued a statement saying: ‘Today more than ever, the peace of our continent cannot be safeguarded without a common and functional security union, including a European army.'

Mr Cameron ramped up his own rhetoric on the EU this morning and warned in a speech that quitting the European Union would put peace and stability at risk and hamper the fight against terror.

Backing the In campaign: David Meylan, left, who served in the RAF wrote to Britain Stronger In Europe to offer his support, while Patrick Churchill, right, a former Royal Marine Commando who fought at D-Day received the Legion d'Honneur in 2004

In an extraordinary escalation of the referendum battle, he also invoked Winston Churchill and the graves of the Second World War fallen.

To ram home the PM's point, the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign released the film of four war heroes made the 'patriotic case' for the EU.

Field Marshal Lord Bramall, former Chief of the Defence Staff and Britain's most decorated living soldier says on the film: 'We would be going backwards not forwards in what we set out to cure after the terrible tragedies of the Second World War.'

Patrick Churchill, a former Royal Marine Commando who fought at D-Day and who received the Legion d'Honneur in 2004, says in the video that if Europe 'breaks or if we are not in that union then countries will fall apart. The only solution is to bind together, hold together, there we find strength.'

And David Meylan, who served in the RAF and wrote to Britain Stronger In Europe to offer his support, said: 'We sacrificed many, many men in both world wars and this was to establish a peaceful and a prosperous union. We can't sacrifice that now.'

It also included a video from Mr Smith, who is a well-known Labour supporter who has accused the Tories of being racist.

Only last week he tweeted: 'David Cameron has so much blood on his hands since he became PM he could get a job as village butcher after he retires'.

Striking back: Boris Johnson (pictured this morning) spoke three hours after the PM and accused the Tory leader of not believing his own words by warning that Brexit could trigger war in Europe

Lone stand: David Cameron will say that Britain stood as a bulwark against a new dark age of tyranny and oppression in 1940. Pictured, Hitler's SA officers on an exercise outside Munich

David Cameron said today that Europe risks sliding back into conflict and genocide if Britain votes to leave the EU.

The Prime Minister warned that quitting the European Union would put peace and stability at risk and hamper the fight against terror.

In a speech setting out the 'patriotic' case for a Remain vote, he said the bloc had reconciled warring nations. The Prime Minister also warned that peace could be jeopardised by Brexit.

He insisted there is 'strength in numbers' as he argued that staying in the 28-member bloc was crucial in the fight against Islamic State (IS) and dealing with a 'newly belligerent' Russia.

POLITICAL CROSS-DRESSING AS DAVID MILIBAND INTRODUCES CAMERON AT PRO-EU SPEECH The former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband (pictured introducing David Cameron this morning) jetted across the Atlantic to help out the Prime Minister's bid to keep Britain in the EU Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has refused to share a platform with David Cameron during the EU campaign but that didn’t stop David Miliband – the man who wanted both their jobs – jetting across the Atlantic to help out the Prime Minister this morning. The former Labour foreign secretary said he was fully aware that many will ‘poke fun at our unusual and temporary alliance’ as he introduced the Prime Minister ahead of his key EU speech at the British Museum. But he said it was a ‘mark of the stakes’ that they had come together and their partnership was a ‘sober reflection’ of how serious the threat of Brexit posed. Mr Miliband fled to the United States after losing out to his brother Ed in the 2010 Labour leadership election and now pockets £400,000-a-year in charge of the International Rescue Committee in New York. Defending the show of political cross-dressing this morning, Mr Miliband said: ‘There is a centre-left case for Britain's membership of the EU. There is a centre-right case for Britain's membership. ‘Together they add up to a compelling national case, and they need to be brought together in a way that is positive, patriotic and effective.’ He went on to warn that quitting the EU would be ‘political suicide’ and would be the ‘greatest voluntary redundancy of political power’ by any country in modern times. Joking about the likely ridicule the picture of him and Mr Miliband would generate, Mr Cameron joked: ‘I look forward to the Private Eye cover with trepidation’. To hammer home the cross-party message of the event this morning, the In campaign wheeled out another former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, as well as a host of Tory MPs, ministers, who sat alongside an audience of foreign ambassadors in the lobby of the British Museum in central London. Advertisement

Vote Leave said 'claims that leaving the EU and taking back control would somehow lead to war smack of desperation' and insisted the safe option was to quit.

Asked if there was a danger voters would think he was 'crying wolf', Mr Cameron said: 'I would just say look at the speech, look at what I've said, consider the arguments. No-one can doubt that Europe has had a violent and turbulent history.

'These are facts. I am not arguing that the EU alone has kept the peace in Europe these last 70 years because, of course, Nato played a key role.'

Britain must be strong in Europe if it wants to be strong in the world, the Prime Minister insisted during the speech at the British Museum.

'The serried rows of white headstones in lovingly-tended Commonwealth war cemeteries stand as silent testament to the price this country has paid to help restore peace and order in Europe,' he said.

'Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt?

'Is that a risk worth taking?

'I would never be so rash as to make that assumption.'

Out campaigners have accused Downing Street, which yesterday claimed house prices would collapse following a vote to leave, of desperation.

They say No 10 is panicking with the polls neck and neck despite the intervention of Barack Obama and a series of dire warnings about the risks of Brexit.

Historians have dismissed the suggestion that the EU had kept the peace in Europe, citing instead the crucial role of Nato.

The Prime Minister's speech, described as his biggest of the campaign so far, claimed that 'the serried rows of white headstones in Commonwealth war cemeteries stand as silent testament to the price this country has paid to help restore peace and order in Europe'.

Mr Cameron's intervention came three hours before Boris Johnson, a biographer of Churchill, delivered a major speech for the Leave campaign.

He struck back against the Prime Minister and accused him of seeking to 'debunk and destroy the myth that the EU single market has ever done anything useful'.

And he ridiculed Mr Cameron for claiming that Brexit could trigger war in Europe, accusing the Prime Minister of not believing his own words.

As the EU referendum battle turned nasty with 45 days to go, the former London Mayor said the idea of German tanks 'rolling into France' because the UK had left the union was 'very curious'.

He also warned that the over-the-top rhetoric from Mr Cameron and Remain supporters risked harming the UK.

'I don't think the Prime Minister really believes that leaving the EU would would trigger war in Europe continent,' he said in a speech - also in central London today.

At one point Mr Johnson even delivered a snatch of Beethoven's Ode to Joy as he dismissed accusations that Leave campaigners are 'Little Englanders'.

'I find if offensive, insulting, irrelevant and positively cretinous to be told – sometimes by people who can barely speak a foreign language – that I belong to a group of small-minded xenophobes,' he said. 'Because the truth is it is Brexit that is now the great project of European liberalism, and I am afraid that it is the EU – for all the high ideals with which it began, that now represents the ancien regime.'

The former London mayor will embark on a nationwide bus tour starting on Wednesday.

Leading historians, including the former head of history at Cambridge University, Professor David Abulafia, have dismissed the claim that the EU has brought peace to Europe as 'historically illiterate'.