Pembroke Dock D-Day vet in ITV documentary tonight (From Western Telegraph)

Pembroke Dock D-Day vet in ITV documentary tonight

9:47am Thursday 1st November 2012 in News

A PEMBROKESHIRE commando veteran ‘s emotional return to the beaches of Normandy is the subject of an ITV documentary tonight (Thursday).

Ted Owens, aged 88, was part of an elite force that took part in the D-Day invasion .

Ted, of Pembroke Dock, returned to the spot where he was wounded during the landings as part of filming for the television programme.

Ted also made a moving visit to a town in the Netherlands where civilians paid a terrible price – not only at the hands of the Germans but of the British too.

“It was an amazing trip into the past for me,” said Ted, of Elizabeth Court. “I was able to walk near Sword Beach where I landed and was wounded.

“We also went to the Walcheren Islands where I took part in a commando landing exactly 68 years ago this November.

“I spoke to many local people there. That was very moving indeed.”

Ted’s trip was filmed for the first in a special three-part series, ‘Welsh Heroes of World War 2’, which will be broadcast on ITV Wales at 10.35 this tonight (Thursday).

Ted travelled with the programme’s producer, former Western Telegraph reporter Greg Lewis, who is originally from New Hedges, and cameraman Barry Davies.

He attended a special service at Bayeux War Cemetery and was invited to the village of Maizet, along with other Welsh veterans.

Maizet holds a service every year to honour the Welsh soldiers who liberated the village in 1944.

From France, Ted travelled to the Dutch Walcheren islands which were the scene of a crucial battle late in 1944.

Ahead of the invasion by troops, including Ted, the RAF bombed dykes to flood the island and weaken the German defences.

In the town of Westkapelle, Ted met people who remember the destruction that the bombing caused.