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The South Wales Borderers and D-Day

2014-06-02T08:33:53+00:00

D-Day, 6 June 1944. Shortly before dawn, the greatest sea-borne armada in the history of the world anchored off northern France preparing to disembark thousands of American, British and Commonwealth troops onto five pre-ordained invasion beaches.

What followed, in what has since been termed 'the longest day', determined the course of the whole campaign against Hitler and Nazi Germany. It was perhaps the most pivotal moment of the war and thousands of soldiers and civilians lost their lives in one of the bloodiest and most gruesome episodes of the conflict.

2nd Battalion at Southampton, 5 June 1944. Regimental Museum of The Royal Welsh, Brecon

Among the soldiers packed into the assault ships wallowing in the waves off Normandy, all waiting for Operation Overlord to begin, were undoubtedly many Welshmen - hundreds of them, in fact. They were infantrymen, tank drivers, artillery gunners and the like, all spread over a dozen different units. However, only one specific Welsh regiment had been detailed to take part in the invasion, the redoubtable South Wales Borderers.

The Borderers had come into existence in 1689, originally known as the 24th Regiment of Foot. A renowned and distinguished unit, their most famous moment had been during the Zulu War of the 1870s when, during the defence of Rorke's Drift, 11 Victoria Crosses were won in a single day. Most of them were won by members of the 24th Foot, but despite popular belief, it was only in 1881, after the Zulu War, that the regiment adopted the name South Wales Borderers.

The 2nd Battalion of the Borderers already had the distinction of being the first Welsh regiment to see action during World War Two. In 1940 they had been part of the ill-fated Norway campaign. This time, everyone hoped, there would be a better result.

Now, in 1944, the Borderers were part of the 50th Infantry Division. They had been allotted their role as recently as March and had spent two months in feverish and hectic training, in preparation for the operation. In May, along with thousands of other Allied troops, they moved into the assembly area ready for the assault.

The South Wales Borderers' task on D-Day was to wait until the first waves had gone ashore on Gold, Juno and Sword beaches, the British and Commonwealth invasion areas. Then they would land near Arromanches and push inland from the beachhead to high ground north of Bayeaux.

On their way inland the Borderers were expected to capture a radar station as well as the guns and bridge at Vaux-sur-Aure. Finally, they were to link up with American troops coming from their right. It was an ambitious plan.

During the long morning of 6 June the South Wales Borderers sat waiting in their assault craft as the smoke from the battle rose into the air and the sound of explosions echoed across the water. Then, just before midday, came the order to land.

Two men were drowned in the landing – the same fate nearly befell the CO, so eager was he to get ashore. Glad to be out of the rocking landing craft, the Borderers met little resistance at the beachhead and pushed quickly forward. D Company drove the defending Germans out of the radar station and by nightfall on that first day the bridge at Vaux-sur-Aure was in their hands.

At the end of D-Day itself the South Wales Borderers had captured more ground than any other unit involved in the invasion. Their job was not over, however, and 11 months of hard fighting were to follow, with the South Wales Borderers in the van of the Allied drive through France into Germany.

Their war ended only in May 1945 when Germany surrendered. By then the Borderers had reached Hamburg in northern Germany, a long way from those invasion beaches in Normandy. They were to stay on in Germany as part of the Allied occupying force until 1948.

The South Wales Borderers were absorbed into the Royal Regiment of Wales in 1969 but their history is a proud and distinguished one. The American Revolutionary War, the Zulu War, the Boer War and World War One – the regiment took part in them all.

Their proudest boast, however, has to come from the second great conflict of the 20th century when they were the only Welsh regiment to see action on D-Day and to take part in the mighty Overlord landings.

Learn more about D-Day at 70 on the BBC: download a free interactive book, listen to first-hand accounts and find out about coverage of the 70th anniversary commemorations.

Spies, lies and espionage during wartime Wales

2013-12-05T10:22:53+00:00

The story of Arthur Owens, the Welshman who spied for both Germany and Britain before and during World War Two has become quite well known.

Welsh double-agent, Arthur Owens

His motives were always unclear and the web of intrigue that seemed to surround his various enterprises make him a fascinating character.

But Owens was not the only person with Welsh connections to dabble in political intrigue during those dangerous years. There were several others and their stories are equally as interesting.

The German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr as it was known, headed by Admiral Canaris and Colonel Lahousen, had been interested in using disaffected groups in Britain and America for many years before 1939.

The IRA was their first target but the punctilious Germans soon became appalled by what they considered the cavalier attitude of the Irish extremists, both in the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland and along the eastern seaboard of the USA.

Lahousen went on record as saying that all the IRA seemed interested in was 'guns, guns, guns'. Quite what they did with the weapons when they were delivered he never discovered.

As a result of this failure the Abwehr turned to other parts of the United Kingdom, and Wales, which they considered a hotbed of disaffection, was next on the agenda.

By the autumn of 1939 Plaid Cymru had an estimated 2,000 members and even moderate nationalists like Gwynfor Evans once said that a German victory might be better for Wales in the long run.

He was making a hypothetical point but his words were not lost on the authorities or on the Germans.

When Saunders Lewis called the evacuation process of children from industrial cities like London and Birmingham to rural Wales "one of the most horrible threats to the continuation and life of the Welsh nation" it raised yet another concern in government circles.

Plaid Cymru was closely monitored by MI5 throughout the war and a list of 156 potential "traitors", as they called them, was drawn up for arrest should a German invasion actually take place.

Saunders Lewis

However, long before 1939, German agents were at work in Wales. Their job was to recruit disaffected or unhappy Welsh men and women and with the effects of the long Depression still lingering in the Welsh coalfields and steel towns there were many – who might be willing to help the German cause.

One of these was a man by the name of Hans Heinrich Kuenemann who had been sent to Britain by the Gestapo. His cover story was that he was an engineer, the managing director of a German firm operating out of south Wales.

A colourful character who lived in Marlborough Road in Cardiff and had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, he lived in Cardiff for several years and eventually fled back to Germany just a day or so before war was declared.

Franz Richter came to Wales in 1933, posing as the manager of an enamel factory in Barry. Like Kuenemann, he and his wife slipped out of the country a few days before war was declared.

A certain Professor Friedrich Schoberth, who was for a time a visiting lecturer at Cardiff University, was another German agent.

All three of these men operated in south Wales before the war and dutifully sent back to Germany reports on trade, on the various dock instillations, where and when they found them, any new airfields being built by the RAF.

Such information was undoubtedly useful when the German bombing raids began in 1940.

The chief agent in north Wales was the German consul in Liverpool, Walter Reinhard, who was charged by Canaris and Lahousen with establishing a network of spies along the north Wales coast.

He was not particularly successful but because of his clandestine activities he was expelled from Britain in 1939 – probably just as well for him as a few months later he could have been shot as a spy.

One of the most intriguing of all these German spies and agents was a woman who came originally from Jersey.

Charles Wighton and Gunter Peis, in their 1958 book They Spied on England, commented:"there was a nurse who claimed to come from the Channel Islands who appeared in Pembrokeshire in 1938. After various adventures her body was found in mysterious circumstances near Wantage in 1943."

The two authors made no other comment on the woman and little is known about her 'adventures' or her demise. Whatever information she supplied, the woman, like most other German agents, seems to have had little or no impact on the course of the war.

Unfortunately for the Abwehr, what they failed to realise was that although there were many nationalists in Wales such men and women were deeply hostile to Nazism and the whole idea of fascism.

In the end, attempts to suborn the Welsh people simply withered away and died.

Swansea during the blitz

Despite the bombing raids that decimated towns like Swansea and Cardiff, the huge number of stoppages (over 500 of them) over wages and working conditions in the Welsh coalfields and an enormous rise in crime figures - the people of Wales were never likely to fall under the spell of Hitler and his cronies.

Indeed, four Plaid activists were nearly mobbed to death by the crowd when they shouted catcalls at parading soldiers in Aberystwyth in the early 1940s.

Arthur Owens may well have been the most famous Welsh 'double agent' of the war but there was another man who was perhaps even more successful in playing the Abwehr at its own game.

Gwilym Williams was a policeman from Swansea who posed as a fanatical Welsh nationalist and managed to trick the Germans into passing on valuable secrets that he then sent on to MI5.

Williams apparently uncovered a German plot to land saboteurs from a U-boat onto a Welsh beach and also another plan to poison Cray Reservoir in the Brecon Beacons.

Gwilym Williams rose to the rank of inspector and died in relative obscurity in 1949, no-one knowing the important work he had done during the war.

German spying activities during World War Two were, at best, amateurish and of little consequence – perhaps because Admiral Canaris was, at heart, opposed to the Nazi regime.

He paid for it with his life, being executed in the wake of the assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944.

Despite its lack of success, the use of German agents in Wales remains a fascinating piece of history, a clear case of what might have been.

Vito Victor De Lorto: in search of a GI father

2013-07-05T12:30:22+00:00

Last October I received a request for help while appearing on BBC Radio Wales. It read: "How would you go about tracing an American GI from World War Two?"

I quickly replied with basic information about contacting GI Trace, an organisation set up to help people trace their American GI fathers and/or families. I also suggested that he read Shirley McGlade's book Daddy, Where Are You?: The Moving Story Of A Daughter's Search For Her GI Father.

Later off air I rang and spoke to Cardiff based Bob Williams. He was born in 1945 in Tongwynlais. The details on his birth certificate confirm that his mother was Thelma Abbott and his father was Vito Victor De Lorto, a private in the US Forces. Incredibly even the service number was provided.

After the war Vito returned to the USA and in 1948 Thelma married Jack Williams, who adopted five-year-old Bob in 1950.

Detail from Bob Williams' birth certificate

Bob's mother Thelma died in 2012. She was one of 11 children and when one of her brother's died two faded photos were found in the house. They were of Vito.

Also in the house was a Purple Heart medal. These were awarded for all combat related injuries while serving in the US Army. The items were given to Bob since it was no secret that his father was an American of Italian descent.

Vito Victor DeLorto, US Forces Number 16170001

Unlike most British campaign medals Purple Hearts have no service number and there is no searchable list anywhere. More than 964,000 Purple Hearts were issued during World War Two alone so it was not possible to go down this search route. However, since Victor had died in 1980 it was possible to order a copy of his service records but I was told it would take at least three months for them to arrive.

In the meantime I turned to my family history and people tracing skills and very slowly - because of America's different data protection and privacy laws - I was able to build a picture of Vito Victor De Lorto's incredibly complex family.

It turns out Vito also used the name Victor. He was born in 1919 and died in 1980.

His mother Minnie Vingezza Malle was one of 16 children. She married three times and had 10 children of her own. Victor was the second son of Michael DeLorto, an Italian immigrant who died in 1924.

Victor married Eleanore Pasowicz in 1941 and they had a daughter, Marlene, who was born in 1941, but the marriage failed while he was serving overseas.

Victor was present when Bob's birth was registered on 20 October 1945. His service records would later show that he went AWOL from 21 October to 30 November 1945, presumably to spend time with Thelma and baby Bob while he made an agonising decision.

Vito Victor De Lorto

The marriage records for Illinois, which are available online, show that Victor married Sally Wood in 1950. Sally already had a daughter called Bonnie who was born in 1945, the same year as Bob.

Victor adopted Bonnie when she was five years old, which seems like the act of a man trying to create a balance in his life and provide a "correction" for the loss of his son.

Bonnie adored Victor as he was the only father she ever knew but she had never seen any photos of him in uniform. She knew very little about what he did during the war and was not aware of any medals in existence or any of his military history.

All this has changed now. If they want to Bob, Bonnie and Victor's four grandsons can register his details on the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor with pride.

Bob Williams with his father's photograph and Purple Heart

Although Bob and Bonnie share no actual blood they do share a common father, a man it seems who desperately tried to do the right thing. Now they have one another and can share valuable information about their father.

GI babies - researching American soldiers' families

2013-07-04T10:37:43+00:00

Today being 4 July it seems fitting to write this blog about some of the hardest searches with which I am involved. These requests come from the children of American soldiers, or GIs as they were more commonly known, based in the UK during World War Two.

Nobody knows exactly how many GI babies were born but it is estimated to be in the thousands. Naturally time is running out for these children to successfully be able to trace their fathers, but there is still much that can be done to trace extended families and to learn additional and much appreciated personal information about their fathers and, in exceptional cases, a glimpse of a treasured photograph.

Sadly, for many the search may not be so successful but there are several key organisations who can help. The very best place to start your research is with GItrace.org. They offer free help and advice alongside a wealth of experience and a vast membership who can provide additional emotional and practical support. They explain how to use the Military Personnel Records Center to apply for the service records of US military personnel.

The first GIs landed on Britain's shores in 1942 and brought with them candy, Coca-Cola, cigarettes and nylon. Young women were quickly invited to attend dances at local army bases and of course the GIs were happy to teach them.

The resulting relationships meant that over 70,000 GI brides crossed the Atlantic after the war. In his book Cardiff, A City At War, Dennis Morgan states that there were 72 GI brides from Butetown alone.

Naturally there many other relationships that did not or simply could not end in marriage for various reasons. One poignant photograph shows a hastily scribbled message painted onto the outside of an army tent which reads "Sorry Jean, Had to Go, Johnny".

With so many GIs based in south Wales I thought a good place to start my search would be at the Glamorgan County Archives. However, so much of what they did was secret that very few records survive, and those that do would be subject to a closure period of at least 75 years. A search of their catalogue resulted in one solitary but poignant letter of thanks.

Letter from a GI detailing his return to America

Robert Jennings, the writer of the letter, seems like such a nice man. I would love to hear from him or his family to see what happened to him after the war.

It is widely reported that the GIs were generous. This was possible for them since their average salaries were more than five times that of a British soldier, they had no living expenses to worry about and no rationing either.

The author Dennis Morgan recalls a Christmas party at the Rhydlafar US Military hospital in Cardiff where, as a small child, he was served peaches and spam with orange juice and ice cream. Naturally this veritable feast was one of his fondest memories.

The Times newspaper reported on 4 August 1942: "Their manners were good, though a little different from those in Britain. Americans were perhaps a little quicker on the uptake, but they made friends more easily..."

Similarly the ladies who volunteered to run the church army canteen at the Carlton Rooms on Cardiff's Queen Street remembered how the Americans they served would breeze in full of banter and wisecracks but "that they were always charming and offered to help with the washing up". How I wish there was a photo of that!

As part of her research into Newport's history Michele Lewis has gathered volumes of personal memories, photographs, clippings and facts about the GIs based in and around Newport following the disembarkation of 1900 American servicemen who arrived in early 1942 at Newport docks.

By the time the war was over about three million US soldiers had passed through Britain, with most of them disappearing virtually overnight in June 1944 when they were secretly dispatched to the beaches of Normandy.

As a way to express their thanks those GIs who were based near Whitchurch in Cardiff raised the funds for a plaque and also planted an avenue of trees on the common, which survives to this day thanks to a recent restoration project.

Plaque in Whitchurch, Cardiff, for American GIs

Listen live on BBC Radio Wales on Louise Elliott's programme on Friday July 5th to hear the story of the Cardiff based son of an American solider, after which another blog will be posted to explain everything.

Welsh trawlers at war

2013-07-01T09:46:02+00:00

When you think about the merchant navy during the Second World War, you tend to think of the lumbering merchantmen, ploughing steadily onwards in convoys across the Atlantic, and the deadly U-boats that waited for them in ambush. That's as it should be.

The men from those deep sea vessels deserve to be remembered. So many of them died in unprotected, defenceless oil tankers or tramp steamers that it is hard to quantify their bravery.

But one section of the merchant marine rarely gets a mention – the men of the trawler fleets who continued to operate throughout the war, keeping a hard-pressed Britain well stocked with fish.

As a food supply, fish became increasingly important as the war progressed and the German submarine blockade intensified, virtually cutting off imports of things like Argentinian and American beef.

Many men from the trawler fleets were called up for wartime service in the Royal Navy, leaving gaps in the fishing fleets to be filled by old men who had long retired and thought their days at sea were over or by young boys just out of school.

What that meant, of course, was that as trawlers were sunk by U-boats, mines or aircraft, many of the long-established fishing families of the country suffered grievous losses.

In all 136 fishing boats were lost during the Second World War, with over 900 trawlermen going to their deaths. And many of those men came from south Wales.

Two Cardiff trawlers were sunk during the war. These were the Naniwa, which was bombed by German aircraft on 16 February 1941, and the Oyama, lost on 12 January 1941.

In the case of the Oyama, there is no known cause for her sinking. She might well have hit a mine, a more than likely reason as she carried no radio and there was no enemy record of her demise. Twelve sailors died on the Oyama, five on the Naniwa.

Swansea also lost a fishing boat on 27 January 1941. The ship Caerphilly Castle was attacked by German bombers and duly sent to the bottom. Three crewmen died, the rest managing to escape and pass on the news.

Milford Haven was, of course, the largest fishing centre in Wales and, as might be expected, the port suffered particularly badly during the war. No fewer than nine Milford trawlers were sunk as well as a further 10 Milford boats that were then sailing out of other ports.

Most of the sinkings were from mines and invariably, with the vessels sailing independently, they resulted in trawlers being lost with all hands. The first to go was the Cresswell, sunk by gunfire from a surfaced submarine off Flannan Isle on 12 November 1939.

The last to be sunk was the Charmouth which hit a forgotten mine and sank off the Irish coast in November 1946, over 12 months after the war had ended.

The John Baptish was lost on 9 September 1940. Skippered by 56-year-old WJ McLean, she was returning to port with a large catch of herrings – being seen and waved to by the men sailing on other trawlers, in the opposite direction. After that the John Baptish simply disappeared and there is no record of how she met her end.

Captain McLean had been at sea for over 40 years, having spent the Great War in minesweepers and been mentioned in despatches several times. His crew of 12 were a mixture of Milford men and seamen who had come to the port from places such as Grimsby on the east coast. There were no survivors.

A number of trawlers were requisitioned by the Admiralty when war broke out. They were used as harbour patrol vessels, decoy ships and, occasionally, as minesweepers.

Most of these ships retained their pre-war crews but were given additional Royal Navy seamen for things like manning their guns.

Eleven of these requisitioned trawlers were sunk in the conflict. The Aracari achieved a particularly dramatic end. She was declared a total loss after she ran ashore on a small island off Sicily during the invasion of Italy by Allied forces in 1943.

The Manor was sunk by E-boats in the English Channel but more usually losses occurred after the trawlers had hit mines – British as often as not.

The trawler's war was unglamorous but decidedly dangerous. They needed to find and bring in the fish for a beleaguered British population and without their contribution to the war effort, the possibility of starvation would have edged considerably closer.

The dead of the British trawler fleets are now listed and remembered on the merchant navy Memorial at Tower Hill in London. Here in Wales, although the fishing industry has largely disappeared, they are remembered on the memorials of their home ports.

The Cwmparc bombing

2012-12-10T16:11:41+00:00

In April 1941, at the height of the German bombing offensive against Britain during World War Two, the small village of Cwmparc, just outside Treorchy, was subjected to a devastating bombing raid from the Luftwaffe.

For some reason, the Rhondda valleys, with their tightly knit mining communities and essential supplies of coal, had been left more or less alone. The Germans concentrated their efforts on places like the docks in Swansea. Then on the night of 29 April reality hit home.

In what was probably a getaway raid, where the bombers' actual target may have been Swansea or Port Talbot, Cwmparc was left utterly devastated. Chased by night fighters or harried by anti-aircraft fire, the Germans simply ditched their bombs in order to lighten their load.

Incendiary and high explosive bombs plummeted onto the village, tearing a wave of destruction across the whole community. Within minutes the village was blazing furiously. The worst damage, however, occurred in Treharne Street and Parc Road.

Twenty-seven people died that night. One of them, Ivor Wright, was a Home Guard soldier who saw a parachute slowly drifting down through the night sky. Assuming it was a German airman, he went to investigate. The bomb exploded and he was killed instantly.

Because the raid was so unexpected people did not have time - or, indeed, the inclination - to head for the air raid shelters. And many of them paid a terrible price:

"The house was on top of us and we were screaming for help," recalled resident Peggy Mars. "We didn't hear a word from my mother or sister. I think we must have had some sort of idea they had been killed because we couldn't hear a word from them. We weren't dug out until morning."

One of the most tragic events of that terrible night was the death of three evacuees, all members of the same family. The Jameson family, two boys and two girls, had been evacuated from Manor Park in East Ham, London, and sent to the Rhondda, supposedly a safe haven.

They were staying at 14 Treharne Street and, when the bombs fell, their house was one of those hit. The surviving child, Vera, remembered it well:

"I was buried for about 10 hours before they got me out. I was just a child and when they started digging I could hear them talking - I thought it was Father Christmas coming down the trap in the ceiling. My sister Joan, I saw her lying there and I knew she was dead".

The two boys - George, 13, and Ernest, 11 - survived the initial blast, were pulled out and taken to another house that was serving as a first aid post. Then a landmine fell onto the building and they were killed instantly.

The funeral of all the victims was something no-one in the village - or in nearby Treorchy - ever forgot. Lorries were used to transport the coffins to the local cemetery where the bodies were buried in one grave. People lined the streets and stood to pay their respects. The death of the Jamesons was particularly poignant: three innocent children who had been sent to the Rhondda for safety and found only bloodshed and mayhem.

After the war, in November 1948, there was a memorial service at Cwmparc Library and Institute for those who had died.

As a permanent memorial an illuminated two-faced clock was unveiled by a young boy, Colin Harries, who had been there on that dreadful night and had been rescued from the wreckage of his bombed house in Treharne Street.

The tragedy of the Cwmparc bombing is that it took the lives of so many innocent people, adults and children alike. It was, perhaps, no different from the tragedies that were played out in so many other towns across Britain and Germany during the dark days of World War Two.

But the sudden and unexpected plunging of the Rhondda - a community well used to death and disaster - into the horrors of modern warfare continues to pull at the heart strings.

Peggy Mars and Vera Jameson quotations from Wales At War, published by Gomer Press.

Penarth's unusual war memorials

2012-11-09T15:35:21+00:00

In 1919 and the early 20s, shortly after the end of World War One, virtually every town in Britain demanded and got its own war memorial.

The idea of commemorating "the fallen" was a new and unusual concept, but it was a desire that gathered pace during the war years and has never gone away.

Before World War One such shrines had been almost unheard of – there was the odd plaque or commemorative monument, usually to officers, but generally speaking that was it. In the Victorian age many of the rank and file professional soldiers had enlisted either as an alternative to prison or were fleeing an unhappy and often dangerous past.

In the eyes of the general public such soldiers were paid to put their lives at risk. So to praise or commemorate them if they died was neither expected nor desired. But the casualty figures of what was then known as the Great War made people stop and think.

In the wake of the Battle of the Somme, makeshift shrines began to appear on street corners or in church porches right across Britain. They were to be found on pavements and in fields, churches and schools, places where flowers could be laid and a list of the dead recorded.

These people's shrines, as they became known, were not officially sanctioned but they were symbolic of a national outpouring of grief and sorrow. And the government noted their popularity and marked them down as a way of remembering the fallen once the war had ended.

The seaside town of Penarth, like so many other communities across Wales, had lost hundreds of men in the conflict and the people of the town wanted to remember their dead.

At the end of 1916 a roll of honour was created at St Augustine's Church on the hill above the town docks. The roll was a piece of carved Italian oak, which is now on show at the back of the church. It was designed by John D Batten and was only finally finished in 1920.

St Augustine's Church displays a roll of honour designed by John D Batten

In the autumn of 1918, at All Saints in the town, a calvary was erected in the church grounds. This was to commemorate the 23 members of the congregation who had lost their lives in the war.

All Saints Church in Penarth

A brass plaque in Albert Road Methodist Church remembered the 16 members of that particular congregation who were also killed in the war.

Penarth war memorial

These were unofficial memorials but the Penarth District Council, noting their popularity – and the simple collections of flowers and wooden crosses that people had laid outside the houses of the dead – soon appointed a committee to decide on the best way to commemorate the town's casualties. A war memorial of white granite was commissioned, designed by Goscombe John, and erected in Alexandra Park. It was unveiled on Armistice Day 1923.

The memorial was designed by Goscombe John

Yet the unofficial memorials continued to arrive and take their place in Penarth. In June 1919 the National War Savings Association donated a demobilised tank to the town. It was placed in Alexandra Park and survived for many years as a symbol of the suffering inflicted on so many until, with another war looming, it was finally sold to a firm of scrap merchants in 1937.

In 1929 a memorial clock was presented to the town and mounted on the outside of the pavilion on the town pier. It was donated by Mrs Esther Harries in memory of her late husband Hyman and her son Solly who had been killed during the war. A memorial tablet in Hebrew and English was erected at the same time. The clock remains there to this day.

Gladys Gibbs bought this building in 1917 to operate as a children's home

Perhaps the most unusual war memorial of all, however, came in the shape of the JA Gibbs Home in Paget Place. Formerly the hotel of the Taff Railway Company, the building was bought by Gladys Gibbs in 1917 and converted into a children's home/nautical training school.

Named in honour of John Gibbs – of the Cardiff shipping firm – who had been killed leading his battalion into action on the Menin Ridge, Mrs Gibbs presented the building to the National Children's Homes and Orphanages. It ran as a nautical school until 1936 and still operates as a school for children who have difficulty learning as a result of challenging behaviour.

The JA Gibbs Home – now known as Headlands School – was an unusual but more than effective type of war memorial. It was not just a piece of sculpture or a roll of honour but a place where useful service could be carried out.

A plaque to Guy Gibson, leader of the Dam Buster Squadron

After World War Two, inevitably, other names were added to the town war memorial. But, again, private memorials were also erected. Guy Gibson, leader of the Dam Buster Squadron, had stayed at the home of his wife's parents, 2 Archer Road, on many occasions. According to legend, the first she knew of the famous raids was when she opened the paper one morning to see Gibson's face staring at her from the pages.

A plaque now adorns the wall in Archer Road, recording the fact that Guy Gibson stayed there. Gibson was elected life member of Glamorganshire Golf Club – the location of a memorable party when news broke about his VC – but he played there only rarely, being killed in action on 19 September 1944. He is commemorated in yet another unofficial war memorial on the wall of the clubhouse.

Penarth is not dissimilar to many other small communities across Wales. It lost many people in the various conflicts of the 20th century. It is only right that those casualties should be remembered.

The Bevin Boys

2012-09-03T14:18:25+00:00

If, during the dark days of World War Two, the armed forces had a certain romantic appeal for many youngsters, one thing is clear – the mining industry did not. And yet, from the end of 1943 onwards that is exactly where a large number of conscripts found themselves.

In May 1940 there were an estimated 750,000 men working in the mining industry, but even in those early days of the war the government required another 40,000 to reach the essential output needed to fight the war. And things did not get any better.

By the beginning of 1943 there was a shortage of around 36,000 miners, many having gone into the armed forces or left the mines in order to take up better paid jobs in places such as munitions factories. By the autumn that figure was thought to be around 50,000 and the government was seriously considering the release of former miners from the armed forces.

It was clear that a revolutionary new approach was required – and that is exactly what Britain, her conscripts and her mining industry now received.

Conscripted to the mines

On 2 December 1943 Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour and National Service, stood up to address the House of Commons. Henceforth, he announced, when young men were called up for active service a certain number of them would be chosen by ballot and conscripted, not into the army, navy or air force, but into the mining industry.

A figure of one in every 10 conscripts was arrived at, a figure that eventually gave the Bevin Boy Scheme – as it soon became known – a total strength of 48,000. The selection process consisted of Bevin's secretaries pulling a number from a hat. Any conscript that week whose National Service number ended in that digit found himself down the mines. It was as arbitrary and random as that.

It was inevitable that the scheme should be unpopular, particularly among those men who had no desire to ever enter a coal mine. As Bevin Boy Harvey Arnold remembered: “I wasn't too happy about it because I'd made up my mind that I wanted to go into aircrew. But instead of going up, I had to go down – a bit of a blow, really."

And yet it was something that Harvey Alford and thousands of other young men just like him accepted, in the main, without argument. They knew there was a war to win and if they could not do it sitting behind the guns of a Lancaster bomber then they would do it by hacking and hewing coal a mile below the surface of the earth.

Culture shock

The boys, as they were perhaps disparagingly known, came from a wide range of backgrounds, from concert pianists and trainee teachers to manual labourers and clerks. It was, of course, a culture shock for all of them but, perhaps surprisingly, the vast majority excelled.

The first drop down the mine shaft – the initiation drop as the Bevin Boys called it – was never easy, the cage plummeting down two or three thousand feet at a rate of 70 feet a second. But, like the rest of the work underground, it was something they got used to.

The new recruits were given a six week course of theory and practical instruction, and off they went. There was little more that could be done – now it was up to them.

Many of these new miners went to the collieries of the Welsh valleys where, by and large, they were treated well by the miners and their families. Some formed close relationships with the people who gave them lodgings, and the stories about Bevin Boys being told to lead out or control pit ponies who knew only Welsh have become part of the legend. In the main, however, it was all done in fun.

There were comments from some of the public who saw these fit young men out of uniform and thought of them as shirkers - an attitude that never failed to annoy the Bevin Boys – but mostly they were accepted as young people who were doing there bit to help the war effort.

Things were not easy. The Bevin Boys received a pair of steel toe-capped boots and a helmet but they had to buy their own equipment, just like the full-time miners. And when their first pair of boots wore out it was up to them to replace these essential pieces of clothing.

After the war

The Bevin Boy Scheme did not end with the closure of hostilities in 1945. Britain still needed coal and, as a result, Bevin Boys were still going down the mines until 1948.

Recognition did not come easily, either. There were no medals and, for many years, Bevin Boys did not march in with the armed forces at the Remembrance Day Service.

Fortunately, all that changed and in 2008 the first Veteran Badge Awards were made to some of the Bevin Boys – a fitting tribute to men who had made just as much effort and sacrifice as those who flew bombers or went down in submarines.

The thrill of live television and reuniting old friends

2012-04-25T15:10:00+00:00

A short while ago I was on the BBC's The One Show. I can't quite believe that I can now write that sentence or even that I was there. It was all very exciting and in the end I wasn't nervous at all, which is quite surprising really since it was my first time doing live telly.

As I expected there was a lot of waiting around but lots to watch, and then finally about 30 minutes before the start of the programme there was a frantic flurry of activity. I was rushed into make-up and sat next to Louis Theroux who was chatting to Jessica Hynes, and soon I felt like I was ready for the red carpet. Instead I was heading for the red curtain in the corner of the room, where I got changed into my chosen outfit... chosen so as not to clash with the vivid lime green sofa!

Cat Whiteaway and Alex James

I'd already pre-recorded a film about a reunion and so all I had to do was talk about the research and how you can start looking for people who you've lost touch with.

A long time ago I'd been asked if I could find Doreen Hambridge who had been evacuated from London to Carmarthenshire during World War Two. The family she was sent to lived in Four Roads near Kidwelly and they had always wondered what kind of life little Doreen had led and whether she had fond memories of her time as an evacuee.

The family could remember that little Doreen was less than 10 years old when she arrived, just after Fred Harries and Elizabeth Doreen Bowen had married in 1942. Incredibly they also remember that it was a Sunday afternoon when the bus arrived at the village green. They went down to pick a child and chose little Doreen, exhausted from her overnight adventure but clinging to her brother Fred, who was taken in by the Harris's aunt at the post office in the village.

Searching the indexes of births on www.freebmd.org.uk for girls called Doreen Hambridge born after 1930 resulted in just three results.

Births March 1930
Hambridge Doreen Haddon Hendon

Births March 1932
Hambridge Doreen Burrows Marylebone

Births September 1938
Hambridge Doreen L Munday Brentford

To try and establish which one was the correct one I knew that I had to search for a brother called Fred by cross referencing against the mother's maiden name.

There were no births entered for a brother called Fred for the Doreen born in 1930 with the mother's maiden name of Haddon, nor for the one born in 1932 with the mother's maiden name of Burrows.

But for the last entry in 1938 there was an entry for a Frederick W T Hambridge born in 1936 also in Brentford, crucially with the mother's maiden name of Munday.

Just to be certain of my facts I quickly searched and found the marriage of Doreen's parents Frederick W T Hambridge and Lilian E Munday in 1936 in Brentford. After that it was simply a matter of repeating the processes; searching for any marriages of a Doreen L Hambridge and then for any subsequent children.

Luckily Doreen had married David Jeff in 1955 and they had four children. So I had a nice unusual surname to work with and four extra chances at finding her.

In my second stroke of luck one of Doreen's daughters had posted her family tree on Genes Reunited and so I sent her a message and waited patiently for a reply. The eventual outcome was an emotional reunion between two women aged 91 and 74 who hadn't seen each other for nearly 70 years.

If I hadn't had such unusual names to work with or if fewer details were known then I could have contacted the Evacuees Reunion Association or asked in the local studies section of the nearest library or perhaps located a local history group or family history society to ask their advice. And if all that had failed I would have written a little article and sent it off to the local newspapers with a photo and a plea for help.

I can't promise an emotional reunion every time but you never know.

Lottery fund helps Cardiff war veteran to revisit Sri Lanka

2012-03-27T13:20:00+00:00

A national television advertisement for the National Lottery's Good Causes holds special significance for Cardiff war veteran Leslie Godwin.

Leslie Godwin

Leslie is one of over 50,000 people who have made commemorative trips through the BIG Lottery Fund's Heroes Return scheme.

Leslie in his RAF uniform

Leslie, 87, was just a teenager when he left Cardiff for the Far East to serve in the RAF during World War Two.

He joined the Home Guard at just 15, and at 18 left his job in Cardiff's East Moors steel works to become a rear gunner and wireless operator in the Royal Air Force.

Leslie was sent on gunnery and telegraphy training course, eventually ending up in Koggala, Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) towards the end of the war in 1945.

He remained station in Asia as part of the Coastal Command whose duties included air sea rescues.

Leslie was demobbed in 1947 and had only been home in Splott for three days when he met the woman who would become his wife. They remained married for 54 years.

Koggala was badly hit by the Asian Tsunami in December 2004

Speaking about the return journey to Koggala, Leslie said: "My wife died nine years ago and I hadn't been well for a while, then I saw this opportunity and thought "Why not?"

Last year Leslie took his grandson Gareth Keene to see where he'd served. His Koggala base had been hit badly by the 2004 tsunami, so Leslie and his grandson toured the region.

"Gareth came as my carer, and it was great to be able to show him some of the places I'd told him about. It did me a power of good, and I'm glad we were given that chance.

"Going back, my main memory of the war is working so closely with that crew of men.

"I was one of the lucky fellows - many of those in Bomber Command didn't come back."

Life Changing campaign

The National Lottery - Life Changing campaign is running on national television throughout March. Adverts in national newspapers will also promote the impact of National Lottery funding.

Since 2004, £88 million has been awarded to veterans and projects that involve learning about and commemorating their experiences. This has allowed over 51,000 World War Two veterans, spouses, carers and widows to visit the places where they saw active service.

You can find information and details of how to apply for a Heroes Return 2 grant by calling 0845 00 00 121 or visiting www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/heroesreturn.

The Kinmel Camp riots of 1919

2012-03-04T15:00:00+00:00

Some of the most serious riots in British military history took place between 4 and 5 March 1919 in the Canadian Army Camp at Kinmel Park in North Wales.

Postcard of Kinmel Camp (provided by George Owen)

Kinmel Park, just outside Abergele, was a transit camp for Canadians waiting to be repatriated to their homeland after their service to the British Empire during World War One and at the time of the riots held almost 15,000 soldiers.

Originally it had been intended to send the Canadians home directly from France but many of these men had relatives in the United Kingdom that they wanted to visit. This was understandable and, as it was unlikely that most of these men would ever be in a position to visit them again, transit camps were established across Britain in order to facilitate this desire.

Kinmel Park was a huge staging camp where troops of all regiments and military specialities were housed, the soldiers being accommodated according to the military districts of Canada from where they came rather than in the long-bonded regimental units that had seen them through the war years. The men did not know the officers and there was a clear mood or feeling of alienation in the air.

This, in itself, was enough to create problems but when, in late February 1919, it was learned that troop ships originally allocated to the Canadians had been re-allocated to the American forces - who had certainly not served in France for half as long as the Canadians - it caused understandable and huge resentment.

Then came the news that the Canadian 3rd Division - know to the military authorities as the Fighting Division - was to be given priority over other Canadian troops. The men at Kinmel were outraged, both at the implied slander on their reputations and on being once again pushed down the list for repatriation.

Basic conditions

Conditions at Kinmel Park were very basic. The place was a sea of mud and strikes had held up the delivery of both fuel and food supplies. As a result the men were on half rations and as many had received no pay for over a month, even the delights of the canteens in Tin Town - a large, privately run establishment set outside the military camp - were beyond their means.

They were sleeping 42 to a hut in accommodation that had been designed for no more than 30. Men were taking it in turns to sleep on the floor and most of them had only one blanket to keep them from the cold of a north Wales winter. Several delegations were sent to the senior officers in the camp, protesting about conditions and the way the men felt they were being treated. Nothing was done.

Then, on 1 March 1919 there were rumours that tempers had boiled over and that one of the canteens in Tin Town had been looted. That same day some of the soldiers refused to go on a route march and Colonel Colquhoun, the camp commander, became very concerned. It did not stop him going off to Rhyl for a social evening on 4 March and in his absence large numbers of muttering soldiers began to gather together in groups to sound off about the conditions they had to endure.

In the early hours of the morning, with tempers growing more and more frayed by the second, discontent finally spilled over into direct action.

Several leaders were appointed by the men, one of them being Sapper William Tsarevitch, and when some of the groups moved off to raid and loot the camp Quartermaster's Stores the call "Come on the Bolsheviks" was heard. Fires were soon started in Tin Town and the officers' and sergeants' messes were looted.

Officers quickly established a defensive perimeter and ammunition was issued to those soldiers considered to be trustworthy and loyal. The rioters had a few rifles but, in the main, they had to improvise weapons, strapping razors to broom handles or sticks.

Full scale mutiny

When 20 of the mutineers - because it was by now considered a full scale mutiny - were seized the rest simply charged the guardroom and set them free. Rifle shots were exchanged and, when casualty figures were later added up, it transpired that three rioters and two guards had been killed in the affair. Many others had been wounded or injured.

The rioting continued until 4.30 in the morning of 5 March when things seemed to fizzle out and the officers regained control of the camp.

In the aftermath of the mutiny - although the term riot is probably more accurate - 78 of the Canadians were arrested. Twenty-five were convicted of mutiny and sentences of between 90 days detention and 10 years' penal servitude were handed out by the military courts.

There was no great conspiracy to mutiny at Kinmel Camp, rather it was something that just happened due to a variety of different causes. Yet the military and those in command needed to fix or apportion blame, at the same time absolving themselves from fault.

As far as many in authority were concerned, despite the appalling conditions at the camp, one of the root causes was the growth of socialism. Set in the context of the time, with recent communist revolutions and uprisings in Russia and Germany, it is relatively easy to see how they reached this conclusion. The fact that the officers did not ensure that the men knew their concerns were being heard and understood was conveniently forgotten.

Following the riots priority was given to repatriating the Canadian troops. The affair was, as far as possible, "hushed up" and by 25 March over 15,000 Canadians had been transported home. The tragedy is that it could not have been done earlier.

The death of Alun Lewis

2012-03-04T13:00:00+00:00

Many people consider the young Welsh poet and short story writer Alun Lewis, a man who died on active service in Burma in 1944, a far better writer than the more famous Dylan Thomas.

His body of work - two small poetry collections, two short books of prose - was not great and it is difficult to make judgements about lasting quality. And literature should never be about competition, about one writer being better or worse than another.

But Lewis' story is certainly one of tragedy - it was a life cut short by a terrible and brutal war, a war that he hated and despised. Who knows what he might have achieved had the man been allowed a few more years of life and creativity.

Alun Lewis was born in Cwmaman on 1 July 1915 and died on the Arakan Front in Burma on 5 March 1940. In between he was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School, the Universities of Aberystwyth and Manchester and spent some time as a teacher at Pengam. In the years immediately before the war he fell in love with a fellow teacher, Gweno Ellis, and wrote stories and poems.

Lewis was beginning to get published when war broke out in 1939. An incredibly sensitive young man, he was not ideally suited to life as a soldier. He had no desire to kill and for a while considered registering as a conscientious objector.

His disgust and horror at what Hitler and the Nazi regime were doing in Europe eventually led him to understand that he could not stand aside while others fought, and so, in March 1940 - his mind still full of doubt and confusion - he enlisted in the army.

Serving first as a sapper, by the middle of July he had been promoted to lance corporal and in October he wrote one of his most memorable poems, All Day it has Rained, on the Shoulder o'Mutton near Petersfield in Hampshire. It was a paean of praise to the countryside and to World War One poet Edward Thomas. It was also, perhaps inevitably, a melancholy lament for the "landless soldier locked in war."

The poem, published in Horizon, earned Alun Lewis immediate recognition and a number of further publications soon came his way.

He married Gweno shortly before being given a commission in the South Wales Borderers. Although his first book, Raiders Dawn And Other Poems, was soon published by Allen and Unwin, he was miserable and lonely, clearly at sea in a world and an army that had little time for sensitivities and esoteric things like poems and stories.

He would soon be lonelier still as in October 1942 he and his unit set sail for India, a country that, to Alun and Gweno, was a whole world away. From the beginning the sub-continent fascinated and appalled him. As intelligence officer for his unit he made several reconnaissance trips into the jungle, the hills and native villages. What he saw and experienced inevitably found its way into his poems and stories.

Whatever his emotions, in prose pieces like The Orange Grove and in poems such as The Peasants he had clearly found his voice:

"Across scorched hills and trampled crops
The soldiers straggle by,
History staggers in their wake.
The peasants watch them die."

It was the enormity of India that frightened and confused him, the wildness and the untamed, untouchable nature of a country that nobody could really understand. There were unknown forces present in the land that made him, at the very least, uncomfortable.

Lewis's world was shattered when, during a period of leave in the middle of 1943, he met and fell in love with Freda Ackroyd. He did not love Gweno any less but he had been apart from her for nine months. He was lonely and adrift, desperately in need of comfort.

While the relationship with Freda certainly brought him comfort, it also brought torture. He knew he was betraying a trust and, as a consequence, he was more lost and alone than ever.

Alun's unit travelled to Burma in February 1944 and quickly moved up to oppose the Japanese. On the night of 4 March he joined B Company in what was a forward position in the Goppe Pass. Just after 5am the following day, on his way to the officers' latrine, he either slipped or fell down a steep bank. His revolver was in his hand and there was a single gunshot wound to the right temple. He died a few hours later.

There has always been debate about the death. Was it an accident or did Alun Lewis shoot himself? The records of the South Wales Borderers and the formal court of inquiry say it was an accident but, given his sensibilities and the emotional turmoil of his last few months, it is hard not to believe that Alun Lewis shot himself in the head.

Whatever the circumstances, that death on the Arakan Front of Burma robbed Wales of one of its most fascinating and skilled writers. He remains an enigma, a man whose finest work was sharpened and honed by a war he hated - a war that eventually destroyed him.

The Defensible Barracks - a Victorian wonder

2012-02-15T08:30:00+00:00

Contrary to what many people believe, the west wales town of Pembroke Dock was never a naval town like Plymouth or Portsmouth. It was a dockyard town, a place that built ships, launched them into the waters of Milford Haven - and never saw them again once they had sailed off to duties in many other parts of the world.

Pembroke Dock at Sunset (Photo:William Hart)

Dockyards have to be protected, however, and if it was anything, Pembroke Dock was a military town. Barracks, forts and gun towers proliferated in and around the place, many of them being still in existence although, these days, long out of use.

Chief amongst these military fortifications were the Defensible Barracks, a huge renaissance style fortification based on an early 16th century design. The barracks still sit - although now in a deplorable state of disrepair - on the top of what is known locally as the Barracks Hill, dominating the town and the site of the old dockyard that they were originally built to protect.

The barracks covered an area of some 6,000 square yards, offering fields of fire to landward and out to sea. Its walls were many feet thick. The purpose of the barracks and fort was the defend the dockyard from landward attack and to this end there were rifle loops in the walls for nearly 700 muskets. In addition, the barracks were equipped with 16 24-pounder cannon. It was originally designed to be garrisoned by eight officers, seven NCOs and 240 other ranks.

Local legend - possibly an urban myth - declares that the Defensible Barracks were completed in just 12 months. Certainly the contractor, Thomas Jackson, handed over the finished product to the military on 25 November 1845, having begun work on them in the late summer of 1844. As official records state:

"Possession was taken at three o'clock in the afternoon and was officially indicated by the hoisting of Her Majesty's flag amidst deafening cheers from the hundreds of spectators. A substantial dinner with a liberal quantity of double strength Welsh ale was given to the workmen."
Vernon Scott : PD Days

Given the size of the barracks, the workmen certainly deserved their "double strength Welsh ale" and if the work really was completed in just one year then it was an amazing feat of engineering and human enterprise. Other sources, however, state that work began in 1841.

It is likely that preparation work, digging out footings and so on, did commence in 1841 leaving just the construction of the walls and buildings to be completed in 12 months. Even so, the mammoth effort required to bring building material to the site and then erect it in such a short space of time was nothing short of miraculous.

The place was first known as Treowen Barracks, after the nearby road, although the original intention was to call them The Prince Albert Barracks, in honour of Queen Victoria's husband. In the end, the name Defensible Barracks was adopted and it stuck.

The first occupants of the Defensible Barracks were the Royal Marines of the Portsmouth Division, transferring from their cramped and draughty quarters on the old woodenwall 'Dragon' which had served as their base for many years. They were soon joined by two companies from the West Yorkshire Regiment.

Over the years many fine and famous regiments were based in the barracks. These ranged from the Pembrokeshire Artillery to the Royal North Gloucestershire Regiment - and, in particular, the 24th Foot, better known as the South Wales Borderers.

In the early days the deep moat surrounding the Barracks was not fenced in. Several soldiers, returning from a night in one of the town's many beer houses, fell into the open moat and were either seriously injured or killed.

It was a fate that also befell Dr Sumpter from the town - returning home late one night after treating a patient in nearby Pennar, he plunged into the darkened moat. The shock to his nervous system and several physical injuries were sufficient to kill him within a few days of the accident.

The most renowned victim of the unprotected moat, however, was an otherwise unremarkable Private in the Royal Marines, one John Harding. He pitched head first into the chasm in October 1850, his gravestone in the town cemetery recording his demise with the following words:

"Except the Lord direct our feet
And guide with gracious care;
At every step we danger meet,
In every path a snare.

Then reader pause, who e'er thou art,
As thus my grave you view;
Remember, thou from life must part -
Perhaps as quickly, too."

The twice daily firing of a blank charge from the barracks cannon became an essential part of the town's customs, alerting those residents without watches when it was noon or 9.30 at night. The 9.30pm gun soon became a signal marking the curfew for those local girls "out courting."

Over the years many famous soldiers served at the Defensible Barracks. None of them was more renowned than the famous Gordon of Khartoum who, although stationed at the barracks, was afforded the privilege of living out "in digs" in the town.

When he left Pembroke Dock to serve in the Crimea it was 1855 and he apparently remarked "I have received my death warrant." In fact Gordon did not die in the Crimean War but had to wait another dozen or so years before meeting his maker at the defence of Khartoum.

Arthur Lowe as Captain Mannering

Another famous resident of the Barracks was the actor Arthur Lowe who later found immortality as Captain Mainwaring in the TV show Dad's Army. He served there during the World War Two with the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry.

The barracks were the scene of a major tragedy on 28 April 1942. Nineteen men were killed while practicing to disarm mines, four of them from the Royal Engineers, four from the King's Own Scottish Borderers and four serving with the Pioneer Corps. An officer who had been in the room moments before escaped death when he left the room to answer a telephone call.

When the military left Pembroke Dock in the mid 1960s, the Defensible Barracks were abandoned to their fate. They have subsequently served as a Council Depot and as the clubhouse for the South Pembs Golf Club.

Now, however, they are empty and forlorn. Although they are officially classified as a Grade II listed building, they are privately owned and are slowly crumbling into dust. It is a tragic state of affairs for a wonderful and historic old building.

Mady Gerrard: holocaust survivor

2012-01-20T15:20:05+00:00

As National Holocaust Memorial Day approaches on Friday 27 January 2012, BBC Wales continues One Of Hitler's Mistakes, its compelling two-part documentary on the incredible life of Mady Gerrard.

An award-winning fashion designer to the rich and famous, including stars such as Shirley Bassey and Susan Hampshire, Mady Gerrard is also a survivor of the infamous concentration camps of Auschwitz and Belsen.

Now 81-years-old and living just outside of Chepstow, Mady recounts her experiences as a teenage Jew in Hungary during World War Two, and of the horrors she witnessed in the concentration camps.

WalesOnline has an in-depth interview with Mady in which she describes in detail her experiences in Auschwitz and Belsen. Children under 14 were gassed but Mady's age - 14 when she arrived - meant that she was not sent to the gas chamber. Instead she was "selected" by Dr Josef Mengele.

Mady witnessed acts of sheer barbarism and cruelty and was unfortunate to cross paths with infamous German officer Irma Gress at both camps.

You can listen to Mady's incredible tale of survival as she describes how she eventually met her liberator, former SAS officer John Randall in the second part of the Radio Wales documentary which goes out this Sunday (22 January 2012 ).

One Of Hitler's Mistakes can be heard of BBC Radio Wales on Sunday 22 January at 5.30pm on BBC Radio Wales.

There are just four days left to listen to the first episode of the documentary on the BBC iPlayer.

Welsh Victoria Cross winners

2012-01-09T12:25:00+00:00

The Victoria Cross is the highest decoration available for men and women who have performed acts of great valour in the face of the enemy. Since it was introduced during the Crimean War, the medal has been awarded to just under 1,400 people but, surprisingly perhaps, only 39 of those individuals have been Welsh or have had Welsh connections.

Victoria Cross medal

Robert Shields from Cardiff was the first Welsh recipient, six months after the medal was introduced, for an act of valour during the Crimean War. However, the one action that everyone considers to be a uniquely "Welsh affair" - the defence of Rorkes Drift during the Zulu War of 1879 - saw only three Welsh VCs.

In total, 11 VCs were won during that battle, the most ever awarded for a single action, but with the South Wales Borderers recruiting in all parts of the country most of the soldiers actually came from England and Ireland, not Wales - as is popularly supposed. Purely on the basis of numbers it was inevitable that Welsh VC winners from the defence of Rorkes Drift, men like Robert Jones and John Williams, were always going to be in the minority.

World War One saw 14 Welshmen win the coveted award. The first of these was William Charles Fuller who came from the tiny village of Laugharne in Carmarthenshire. He had joined the army in 1901 and served in South Africa during the final days of the Boer War.

Leaving the service when the campaign in South Africa finished, William Charles Fuller was still classified as a Reservist when war with Germany broke out in 1914. Like many other Reservists at that time he was duly recalled to the colours.

Serving as a Lance Corporal with the Welsh Regiment, on 14 September that year he went out from the relative safety of his own lines in an attempt to save the life of a wounded officer. Despite being subjected to heavy fire, Fuller managed to bring the officer to safety but the man - Mark Haggard, the nephew of the novelist Rider Haggard - later died of his wounds.

After the war Charles Fuller left the army again and retired back to Laugharne. He had served with great courage throughout the war and been wounded but he had managed to survive. And during the World War Two this man of amazing energy and verve still continued to "do his bit" when he promptly enlisted and served in the town's Home Guard Unit.

William Williams of Amlwch on Ynys Mon sailed as a seaman on the Q Ship HMS Pargust. Q Ships were old merchant vessels, heavily armed with hidden guns and other weapons. The aim was to trap German U Boats into thinking the old vessels were too defenceless and dilapidated to warrant a torpedo.

The lengths that the crews went to in order to disguise the true intent of the Q Ships were amazing. Sometimes sailors even dressed up as women passengers - usually only from the waist up - in order to bamboozle German submariners as they watched through their periscopes.

If the subterfuge was successful the German commander would order his vessel to surface. However, when the U Boats rose to the surface to sink the merchant ships by gun fire, the hidden guns would open fire and, with the tables now well and truly turned, destroy the submarine.

It was a remarkably dangerous job as there was no guarantee that U Boats would actually attempt to destroy the Q Ships by gun fire. And that is exactly what happened to the Pargust. The first the crew knew about the presence of the German submarine was when a torpedo smashed into her side. The ship heeled over, badly damaged, but did not sink.

However, the metal covers that hid the Q Ship's guns were loosened by the explosion and threatened to fall to the deck - thus inviting another torpedo from the watching U Boat. But William Williams and several other sailors, quickly seeing the danger and using all their strength, managed to hold them in place.

When the submarine duly surfaced to finish off its victim, the covers were dropped and the British guns promptly sank the U Boat. It was a courageous action by all concerned but, having been told that only one medal was available, the crew drew lots to see who would take the award. The lucky man was William Williams.

World War Two saw several more Welshmen awarded the Victoria Cross. Perhaps the best known is Tasker Watkins who later became a renowned QC. He was the man who took charge of the Abervan Enquiry in the 1960s and was also, for several years, President of the Welsh Rugby Union.

Born in Nelson, Tasker Watkins enlisted as soon as he was able and was given a commission in the Welsh regiment. He won his VC when, in the days following the D Day landings in 1944, with many of his platoon killed or injured, he led a bayonet charge against 50 enemy troops and then, single handedly, charged a German machine gun post.

Someone who is often forgotten - not because his deed was minor or ineffectual - but simply because he is not considered Welsh, is Captain Warburton Lee of the Royal Navy.

Lee was 44 years old and in command of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla when during the Norway campaign of 1940, he led his ships into Narvik Fjord. Faced by a superior squadron of German destroyers Lee forced home his attack and destroyed five enemy vessels and supply ships before a shell burst on the bridge of his destroyer, HMS Hardy, killing him instantly. For his bravery Warburton Lee was awarded the VC, the first Victoria Cross of the war.

There are many other stories of bravery and courage during times of conflict. Not every soldier or civilian can be awarded the Victoria Cross but that should not, in any way, diminish the enormity of their actions.