An emotional documentary was broadcast on Tuesday, June 7, featuring stories from men and women of Wales’ wartime generation, including one war hero from Pembrokeshire.
‘Greatest Generation’ was broadcast on ITV Cymru Wales at 9pm on Tuesday, June 7, meeting veterans from the Second World War, including Dennis Tidswell from Pembroke Dock.
Dennis, who served in the RAF during the war, fought in the Battle of Britain, as well as the heroic defence of Malta.
He was shipwrecked after being posted to Malta in May 1941, before he spent nearly three years under constant bombardment on the George Cross Island.
After three years abroad, Dennis returned to the UK in 1944, and was then badly injured in a V1 ‘Buzz Bomb’ attack shortly before the end of the war.
This year is another landmark in Dennis’ life, as he turns 100 in July.
The documentary also visited John and Adelaide Martin from Ceredigion, one of the oldest surviving couples from the war.
John served in the RAF as a bomber pilot, as Adelaide also served as a mechanic, and the couple tell the story of John’s Lancaster bomber being hit by a German night-fighter in mid-air ten miles from Berlin.
Now 97, he looks back at the event in 1944 with gratitude for the years of life he’s enjoyed since - but also with sadness for those who were lost.
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Other veterans visited in ITV’s documentary included keen bowler Sid from Cardiff, and a member of the Land Army who served on farms around Ceredigion.
The documentary came about as a project from Age Cymru Dyfed, with the support of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, trying to record the memories of a group of remarkable war heroes.
Many of the veterans’ stories can be found in Age Cymru Dyfed’s West Wales Veterans Archive, which is on People’s Collection Wales, in the National Library of Wales.
The hour-long documentary, after its initial broadcast last night, is now available to watch on ITV Hub.
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