"Our Greatest Generation 1939-1945". Myddfai. 4th October 2023

Photographs from the "Our Greatest Generation" event.

 

"Our Greatest Generation" was a historically important event held in Myddfai Community Centre, Carmarthenshire on 4th October 2023. Organised by Age Cymru Dyfed, it proved a truly momentous occasion with 120 people attending including over 22 who personally experienced the 1939-45 War at first hand. The stories which these veterans from ‘Our Greatest Generation’ aged in their 90’s and early 100’s, conveyed to the audience were remarkable, powerful and extremely moving.

 

From witnessing the bombing of Pembroke Dock, Llanelli, Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, to sailing towards the D-Day Beaches under intense fire and seeing bodies of comrades floating past in sea (some never to be recovered); disposing of unexploded shells and mines on the Normandy beaches and ports; code-breaking in Bletchley Park and not being able to tell your parents what you were doing; serving as the sole (DEMS) gunner aboard a merchant ship making repeated Atlantic crossings and being powerless to help fellow sailors floundering in the sea whose own ships had been torpedoed and sunk. Repatriating prisoners form Changi Prison. Walking into Hiroshima just six weeks after the Atom Bomb had been dropped and witnessing scenes of indescribable devastation and human misery. It was a humbling experience for all of us attending to be in the presence of such greatness. Yet these were ordinary people doing their duty, putting their lives on the line every single day and then, once the War was over, returned quietly to their own lives and many cases never speaking about their experiences, even to their nearest and dearest.

 

This unique occasion was also notable for the award of the Nuclear Bomb Test Medal to Gordon Davies by the Lord-Lieutenant of Dyfed Miss Sara Edwards and The Veterans Commissioner for Wales, Colonel James Phillips. A member of the RAF, Gordon had participated in the British Nuclear Bomb Testing programme on Christmas Island in 1957/58 and is one of the first recipients of the new medal issued by the UK Government, if long overdue.

 

The event was filmed by BBC Wales News and was shown in the lead-up to Remembrance Sunday.

 

Photographs include:

 

1. WW2 Veterans Group Photo

2. Myddfai event

3. Myddfai Veterans Group: inc. John Evans, Trevor Clark, Cliff Robinson, Greg Lewis

4. Owen Dobson and Neil Davies

5. Betty Webb MBE (Bletchley Park) with Hugh Morgan

6. D-Day Veteran Richard Peltzer from Swansea

7. Former CO of the Queen's Own Hussars, Lt Col Charles Carter with WW2 OOH veteran Idwal Davies

8. Gordon Davies with Veterans Commissioner for Wales (Colonel James Phillips) and Lord lieutenant of Dyfed (Sara Edwards)

9. Greg Lewis

10. Hugh Davies

11. Jessica Davies. MC for the WW2 veterans celebration

12. Kirsten Orsborn with Cllr Wendy Lewis

13. WW2 Royal Navy Veteran Neville Bowen with the Veterans Commissioner

14. Dr Norman Rose

15. Programme for Our Greatest Generation
16. Neville Bowen with daughter Wanda Bolton and Claire Wright
17. Owen Dobson with Brian Wilkins Gordon Davies and Maxine Beynon
18. WW2 Veteran of the Far East Duncan Hilling from Sundersfoot with Trevor Clark Curator of Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre
19. WW2 veterans Ceredig Evans from Aberystwyth and Idwal Davies from Llanelli