THE largest celebration of veterans of the Second World War in Wales in recent years celebrated two Pembrokeshire war veterans.

On October 4, 2023, 120 people who served in the Second World War or experienced the war and went on to serve during National Service, gathered at Myddfai Community Hall near Llandovery for an ‘Our Greatest Generation’ event.

Among the guests were nine Second World War veterans including D-Day veterans and Betty Webb MBE. Ms Webb worked as an ATS and was involved in Bletchley Park.

Some of the attendees included those who were children and witnessed the bombing of Pembroke Dock, Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, with some going on to serve in the Armed Forces in later life.

The event was opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Dyfed, Sara Edwards, and Colonel James Phillips, the Veterans Commissioner for Wales, introduced the veterans including the Pembrokeshire natives.

Tony Bird was born in Cowbridge in 1924 and was evacuated along with his school to Lampeter during the early part of the war. He joined the Royal Navy in 1942 and served aboard HMS Escapade, a destroyer performing convoy escort duties in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

He was posted to the USA to train as a cadet pilot but after 50 hours of flight time, he was called back to the UK to join HMS Clematis in preparation for the Normandy invasion. On D-Day, he was on the ship which provided covering fire for the landing craft. Mr Bird was also involved in the protection of the Mulberry Harbour and shot down a passing V1 Flying Bomb with the Oerlikon guns on the deck of the Clematis. He was later posted to the Far East on a Landing Ship, Tank LSCT as part of the war against Japan, repatriating and taking home prisoners of war from the Far East. Tony now lives in Freshwater East.

Duncan Hilling was born in Saundersfoot in 1926 and remembered a number of incidents in Pembrokeshire in the Second World War, including watching the bombs dropping on the oil depot in Pembroke Dock in 1940, which left a thick black pall of smoke over Saundersfoot and the surrounding area and burned for several weeks.

He also remembered watching a Hawker Henley trainer flying low overhead, stalling and crashing, killing the two-man crew who were buried in the churchyard.

In 1944, he was called up to the RAF and was posted to RAF Cosford where he was told that he would need to leave the RAF and transfer to the Army due to a lack of demand for aircrew. After his training, he was posted to India with the Royal Welch Fusiliers in January 1945 where he was due to take part in the invasion of Burma but remained in India until the bombs were dropped in Japan. He was a member of the 25th Independent Brigade to go to Hiroshima as an Army of Occupation just weeks after the bomb had been dropped on the city. He remembers a few days after arriving, he was part of a group of seven who went into Hiroshima to see the damage and found one bridge was completely melted, every building had been damaged with some totally destroyed, railings on the ground had been melted. On visiting the hospital, they found women, men and children with skin peeled off their faces and arms and many were blinded by the blast from the bomb.

He remembered the kindness of the Japanese civilian population during his stay in Japan, but as the British troops were not made aware of the danger from radiation, a number of his colleagues later died from cancer.

He was later posted to Malaysia but contracted yellow jaundice and spent three months in a Kuala Lumpur hospital before being posted home.

There was music provided by Kirsten Orsborn, the Royal Marines ambassador and Forces Sweetheart and Greg Lewis, a producer of ITV Wales’ Greatest Generation and Lest We Forget documentaries presented Lest We Forget: Filming the Stories of the Veterans.

Speaking before the event, Simon Wright, CEO of Age Cymru Dyfed, said: “Age Cymru Dyfed supports older veterans across west Wales. As such, we are looking forward to welcoming a number of WWII veterans – Our Greatest Generation – and their families to Myddfai Community Hall to celebrate their contribution to this country in its hour of need.

“It may be nearly 80 years since WWII raged around the world, but their part in ensuring a free world is not forgotten through events such as this and, through the West Wales Veterans’ Archive held as part of the People’s Collection Wales at the National Library of Wales.”