D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Richard Pelzer

Richard Pelzer, Age 100, Royal Engineers

Interviewed by ITV Wales 4 June 2024

A lance corporal and a diver, Mr Pelzer arrived on Juno Beach on D-Day ahead of the landing forces as part of a unit tasked with clearing the area of mines and obstacles.

Mr Pelzer was attached to a beach clearance unit. It was highly dangerous as workers attempted to clear booby traps and help the troops advance. One of Mr Pelzer’s comrades, Corporal Wray, was killed.

He said: "We dug up this obstacle when the bulldozer started pulling a Tellermine (a German anti-tank mine) and it went off.

"Next thing I know he was sprawling by the side of me and that was it.

"You had wooden posts stuck in the ground like pit props and to them was attached mines. You had the barbed wire, the criss cross iron. They were numerous. 

"Whatever they could put, they put them there. Even concrete blocks. Some were in wetsuits, some were in diving suits.

"There were so many we were like ants clearing the stuff."

Mr Pelzer and his group later provided engineering support for the Canadian troops.

"What I mean is we were doing recovery work," he said.

"That is going in and putting tow ropes onto vehicles that sank for REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) to pull them in to save them. Recover whatever they could, especially the wireless sets. Tanks sank, jeeps sank. Supplies were short."

The artificial Mulberry Harbour was being towed over in pieces to form a makeshift port.

Mr Pelzer said: "When they came to tow it over they didn’t have any experienced boys and of course the engineers were called on to provide the crews. 

"We went on to lay the anchorage for the breakwater which came across ready and all mapped up. We just had to go down and place them.

"Building Mulberry harbour now you have to build the stage up to get it level. 

"You built the cradle and that was the divers' work. Very hard work with a big helmet. To undo the big coach bolts with compressed air so they could pull them out and take them back to the slipway for the next keel to be laid.

"To say that you were there when the keel went down, the fitting out and to then see it in position - I think I was a lucky chap. Those boys, they did a marvellous job."

Mr Pelzer was also part of the port maintenance company - a section of the Royal Engineers set up to keep the ports liberated by the Allies operational.

When the Allies began to capture ports he and others checked for booby traps that had been left behind by the retreating enemy forces.

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