No 3 Welsh Wing Prepares to Invade Normandy

Number 3 Welsh Wing Prepares to Invade Normandy

Some of the party with Ted Owens, former Royal Marine Commando and Normandy Veteran

On the 24th of August___________________________________________________________________

No.3 Welsh Wing will once again 'invade' Normandy; following in the footsteps of the Allied Armies who liberated Normandy and France during the summer of 1944. A total of 27 cadets and staff from the Wing will take part, as well as staff from No.2 Welsh Wing, Dyfed & Glamorgan Army Cadet Force and the British Army.

As part of the preparations for Exercise 'Red Crown' ('Red Crown' comes from the badge of the 53rd (Welsh) Division which fought in Normandy), most of the party met up for a training day at the former World War Two airfield of RAF Carew-Cheriton in Pembrokeshire. The old control tower at Carew-Cheriton has been completely restored and is packed with artefacts from the War; the cadets were able to handle British Army weapons such as the Lee-Enfield .303 No.4 Rifle and the Bren Light Machine Gun and were also able to try on uniforms that were worn in the war (the general verdict was "itchy")

As well as handling the hardware of war, the cadets also had the chance to hear the experiences of someone who actually witnessed the war at point-blank range: Mr Ted Owens of Pembroke Dock was a Commando with 41 Royal Marine Commando and was just 18 years old when he landed alongside the legendary Commando leader Lord Lovat, on Sword Beach, 6th June 1944. At 15 he had been a volunteer fireman and had fought the terrible oil fire caused by a German air raid at Pembroke Dock (the worst fire in British history) which claimed the lives of five of his comrades. He had also witnessed the terrible results of bombing on the town, which he told the cadets "should never be seen by someone of your age."

Nevertheless, three years later Ted was a qualified Commando storming Nazi-occupied Europe on D-Day. His first impression of war was the noise "We were trained to yell to keep themselves going in battle. This, with the shells going overhead, the German shells landing on the beach, the German machine-guns, Lord Lovat's bag-piper, our tanks revving their engines and firing everything they had at the Germans in the houses at the top of the beach made an awful racket... I'd never experienced anything like it and I'll never forget the noise of it."

Ted waded ashore and took cover behind a knocked out British Sherman tank. Resting his rifle across the tracks of the tank, he sighted on a German firing slit in a fortified house at the top of the beach. "I fired maybe five or six rounds - that was all - then a German shell hit the turret of the tank and shrapnel hit me in the back. I can't describe the feeling... just imagine white-hot metal searing through your body. I was totally paralysed with the shock of it. I tried with all my willpower to cry for help, but nothing would come. Thankfully a medic found me and pinned a label to me - I was loaded onto a landing craft and was sent back to England and a Canadian hospital. They pulled 24 pieces out of me and a lot of it is still there... To this day I daren't walk past a scrap dealer!"

Ted soon recovered and was sent back to Normandy. He was wounded twice more before the end of the war - shrapnel through his windpipe ended his war six months after D-Day. Many of his comrades still lie in the fields and cemeteries of Normandy and it is these men, as well as tens of thousands of others who paid the ultimate price in liberating Europe, that No.3 Welsh Wing will be honouring next week.

British Army________________________________

British Army Cpl Alex Goldie, a Service Instructor with 1574 (Pembroke) Sqn, teaches the cadets about the finer points of erecting a military 12'x12' tent.

Cadets____________________________________

Cadets handle British Army weapons and equipment from World War Two - Cpl Alex Hart of 631 (Maesteg) Sqn fancies himself as a Bren-Gunner.

The Scene__________________________________

The scene on Sword Beach (Hermanville-la-Breche) as Ted came ashore on 6th June 1944. Ted is actually in the column of men wading ashore and the tank behind which he took cover is on the left.