Earlier in the week we outlined the 13 Welsh internationals who died in WW1 and the three who were killed in WW2. Their efforts for King and Country will never be forgotten, and neither will those of so many others.
We thought we’d start with the example set by two of the greatest leaders the WRU has had throughout its 135 year history.
SIR TASKER WATKINS VC
Sir Tasker was President of the WRU for 11 years (1993-2004) and still stands guard at the Principality Stadium, where a statue of him has been installed to recall the life of a man described as “the greatest living Welshman” before his death in 2007.
He rose to become one of the highest ranking law lords in the country and enjoyed an amazing life of service. And when it came to fighting in WW2, this favourite son of the tiny mining village of Nelson did his duty unflinchingly.
He became the first Welsh winner of the Victoria Cross in WW2 for his conduct during the North-West Europe Campaign of 1944-45. On 16 August 16, 1944, when commanding a company of 1/5th Company of the Welch Regiment, he attacked a German machine-gun post single-handed while leading a bayonet charge.
Sir Tasker was decorated with the Victoria Cross by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on 8 March, 1945. The full story of his heroism was recorded in his Obituary in The Daily Telegraph:
“The battalion had been ordered to attack objectives near the railway at Bafour, about five miles west of Falaise, as part of the move to trap the Fifth and Seventh German Armies in the Falaise “pocket”.
Watkins’s company had to cross open cornfields containing a number of booby traps, and while doing so came under heavy machine-gun fire from posts in the corn, as well as being targeted by an 88mm gun.
When heavy casualties slowed the advance of the Welch, Lieutenant Watkins found himself the only officer left, and put himself at the head of his men. Although subjected to short-range German fire, he charged two enemy posts in turn, killing or wounding the occupants with his Sten gun.
On reaching his objective he found an anti-tank gun manned by a German soldier. At that vital moment his Sten gun jammed, so he threw it into the German’s face and shot him with his pistol before the man had a chance to recover. Immediately after this the company, now down to 30, was counter-attacked by 50 Germans. Once again Watkins led a bayonet charge that resulted in the destruction and dispersal of the enemy.
The battalion had now been given orders to withdraw, but this could not be passed on to Watkins’s company as its radio had been destroyed. He and his men thus found themselves alone and surrounded by enemy in fading light.
Watkins tried to lead his company back to rejoin the battalion by moving round the flanks of the enemy position through the corn. While going through the cornfield, however, he was challenged by an enemy post at close range. Ordering his men to scatter, he charged the post with a Bren gun and silenced it. Then he led the remnants of his company back to battalion headquarters.
Watkins’s citation recorded that “his superb gallantry and total disregard for his own safety during an extremely difficult period were responsible for saving the lives of his men and had a decisive influence on the course of the battle” – which resulted in the capture of 50,000 German prisoners and 10,000 enemy killed.
He was promoted from lieutenant to major on the field. After recovering in hospital from a leg wound he went home on leave, taking a bus from Cardiff to his home village, near Mountain Ash, Glamorgan. He arrived unnoticed.”
BILL CLEMENT MC OBE
As a player he represented Llanelli, Wales and toured South Africa with the 1938 British & Irish Lions. He went on to become the Secretary of the WRU between 1956-1981 and oversaw the re-building of Cardiff Arms Park. During his period in charge Wales won three Grand Slams and seven Triple Crowns.
His Military Service saw him Commissioned into the 4th Battalion of the Welch Regiment and take part in the D-Day landings in June, 1944. He was injured in action twice, the first time during the Battle for Caen, when he was awarded the Military Cross. On 23 July, 1944, as a war substantive captain and temporary major, he was part of a raid on enemy positions around Le Bon Repos, near Caen.
Clement was in command of one of two companies of the Welch Regiment involved in the operation, but as they advanced down a 900-yard slope toward the objective, he and his men came under heavy fire and he was injured in his leg. One of Clement’s platoons was all but wiped out, with just four survivors.
Casualties with this platoon included one of just two other officers who had started the attack with Clement. He managed to rally his troops and engaged the enemy in close-quarter combat, killing at least 30. When ordered to withdraw, Clement remained until his wounded had been recovered, and only then returned to the rendezvous, where he finally agreed to receive medical treatment.
For his actions in this encounter he was awarded the Military Cross on 21 December, 1944. In 1945 he was wounded in action in the Netherlands, again while in charge of his company of the 4th Battalion.
THE WATSON BROTHERS OF CARMARTHEN
Dick and Arthur Watson were both superb athletes and played rugby at Carmarthen Grammar School and for Carmarthen Quins. They both became ‘flyers’ in WW1, Dick serving in the Royal Naval Air Service and Arthur in the Royal Flying Corps.
He was 22. On 25 April, 1917, Leading Mechanic (Gunlayer) Richard (Dick) Henry Watson was in a force of Handley-Page bombers that took off from Coudekerke for a daylight raid on Ostend. The aircraft strayed and was shot down by a German seaplane near Nieuport.
In a dramatic rescue bid, two French seaplanes tried to help. One took off with a survivor aboard, but the other was captured by enemy speedboats, together with the remaining RNAS survivor, who died of wounds some months later.
It is claimed that Dick Watson, a great all-round athlete and strong swimmer, started to swim for the shore, but the Germans machine gunned him in the sea. Less than two weeks earlier Arthur was shot down over German lines and taken as a prisoner of war on 14 April, 1917.
He was on a sortie in a group of Avro RE8’s detailed to photograph German lines. The fighters, which should have escorted them, never arrived and, when they were attacked by German fighters, all six aircrafts were shot down.
Arthur received four machine gun bullets in his left shoulder and was taken out of his aircraft by some German nuns. He was the only one of the 12 crew to survive and spent 18 months as a POW.
He was repatriated just before the war finished and, when he looked back at his bank account he could hardly believe the balance. While he was in France and Germany his pay had gone into his account and he decided to use the funds to study medicine at St. Mary’s in Paddington and went on to become a doctor in Scarborough.
THREE MILITARY CROSS WINNERS FROM THE SCARLETS
In 1915 in was proudly declared that more than 30 of the 50 players that had played for Llanelli during the 1913-14 season had enlisted for WW1. Three of them, all Welsh internationals, went on to be awarded the Military Cross for their services:
Bailey Davies, from near Lampeter, played full-back for Llanelli and won three Oxford Blues. He won his only cap for Wales in 1907 against England. A schoolmaster at Merchant Taylor’s, Crosby, he was commissioned as a Captain in the Territorial Army. In 1917, he volunteered for active service and was posted to France, where he was awarded the Military Cross for valour after rescuing a wounded soldier during a night patrol. He later became Rector of Sutton, Bedfordshire.
Bill Havard captained Llanelli, won an Oxford Blue and played for Wales against the New Zealand Army in 1919. He became a chaplain to the armed forces during WW1, serving from 1915-19, and was Mentioned in Despatches in 1916 and awarded the Military Cross in the 1918 New Year Honours. He went on to become Bishop of St Asaph and then St David’s.
Bryn S. Evans volunteered for the army after obtaining a degree from London University. He joined Llanelly Rugby Club in 1919 and formed one of the most exciting backlines in Britain with Albert Jenkins, Bryn Williams and Frank Evans. He won the first of his five Welsh caps against England in 1920. As a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps (Battlefield Commission) he was Gazetted for a Military Cross on 24 September, 1918: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty while in charge of four forward guns, of which three were destroyed with most of his men. He continued firing the remaining gun until bombed by the enemy, when he covered the withdrawal of his remaining gun with his revolver. The same day he took charge of three guns and engaged the enemy in mass formation along a road at 50 yards range. His courage and resource were a fine example to all ranks.”
NAZI BATER AND COLDITZ DIGGER
Wrexham-born Ken Rees was last surviving member of the digging team that constructed the tunnel used during the “Great Escape” from Stalag Luft III in March, 1944, when he died in north Wales aged 93 in 2014.
Educated at Ruabon Grammar School, Rees was an outstanding rugby player who played at wing forward for Birkenhead Park, Cheshire, the RAF, Combined Services and London Welsh. He won the English County Championship with Cheshire, was captain at London Welsh in 1953 and also had a Welsh Trial.
During WW2 he was the pilot of a Wellington bomber shot down in flames over Norway during a mine-laying operation in October, 1942. He managed to crash-land into a lake, scrambled ashore where he and two of his colleagues were soon captured.
After interrogation, the 21-year-old was sent to Stalag Luft III at Sagan in Silesia, a camp specially built for captured airmen. While there he did all he could to upset and torment the Germans.
He as regularly sent to “the cooler”, the punishment block, and it was said that the character played by Steve McQueen in the film “Great Escape”, Hilts, was based on Rees. He helped dig out 250 tons of sand as the prisoners built four tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry.
A mass escape was fixed for the night of 24-25 March, 1944. The tunnel entrance was concealed in Hut 104 where 200 men gathered. Rees described the atmosphere as “stomach-churning — worse than waiting for a bombing operation to get under way”.
When the tunnel diggers broke through to the surface they discovered they were short of the woods. Seventy-six men eventually clambered from the tunnel, but Rees never got out. He was waiting in line when the Germans uncovered the escape.
On all fours, Rees rushed back along the tunnel and was the last to clamber back into the hut before the trap door was closed. He was sent to the cooler where he heard the news that the Gestapo had murdered 50 of his colleagues who had been caught on the run.
In January, 1945, Rees and his fellow prisoners were given one hour’s notice to get ready to leave the camp as the Soviet Army advanced from the east. The march westwards was in terrible weather and with limited rations.
Rees and his colleagues were finally liberated by the British Army on 2 May and flown back to England. He was then reunited with his wife, whom he had married only a few days before he was shot down.
TAFFY IRA JONES DFC & Bar, MC, DSO, MM
Born in St Clear’s, he attended Carmarthen Grammar School where it was claimed he failed all his examinations because he wasted all his time fighting and playing rugby. Although only 5ft 5in tall, he went on to play rugby for the RAF in the King’s Cup. In the skies he was one of the most feared pilots in the British squadrons.
He was credited with 41 air victories (29 aeroplanes, 3 kite balloons and 10 ‘probables’). He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar, the Military Cross, Distinguished Service Order and the Military Medal. He was also said to have come through 29 crashes relatively unscathed.
LLANGENNECH RFC’S CLOSE BROTHERS
Brothers Evan and William Close died within eight months of each other serving King and Country. They were 23 and 26 respectively.
Private Evan Close, of the Welsh Regiment, landed in Gallipoli on 9 August, 1915 and was immediately thrown into action. He moved to Egypt in 1916 and then into Palestine, where he was killed on operations in the Jordan Valley on 9 March, 1918. He is buried at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel.
Private William Close was one of the early enlistees into the 15th Battalion, Welsh Regiment, which was known as the Carmarthen Pals. He went to France in December, 1915, and was involved in the bid to capture Mametz Wood. The attack began on 7 July and, in the seven days it took to clear the wood, the Division suffered terrible casualties.
They next fought at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, and it was during this opening battle that William was wounded. He died of his wounds the following day, on 1 August, 1917, and is buried at Bard Cottage Cemetery, Belgium.
These are just a few of the Welsh rugby heroes who served in WW1 and WW2. There were many, many more. We shall never forget them, their actions or their sacrifices.
