The Welsh veteran who paved the way for the allied advance after D-Day

  • Richard Morgan went to meet D-Day veteran Richard Pelzer, from Swansea.

After storming the beaches on D-Day, the Allies' next challenge was supplying reinforcements and equipment for their advance into occupied Europe.

To do this, they constructed vast artificial ports known as 'Mulberry harbours' and Richard Pelzer, from Swansea, helped build them.

Mr Pelzer, now 100 years old, served in the Royal Engineers throughout the war.

Born in Llansamlet near Swansea, he was nineteen when he was called up to fight in World War Two.

After basic training, Richard underwent engineering training, working on underwater demolitions.

Two-and-a half-million men and half a million vehicles to join the fighting because of Port Winston. Credit: British Pathe

On D-Day itself, he and his comrades landed on Juno beach and immediately faced the dangerous task of clearing the landing beaches of booby traps so the rest of the troops could make their way through.

The work of the Royal Engineers proved deadly for one of his comrades, Corporal Wray.

Richard said, "We dug up this obstacle, when the bulldozer started pulling a Tellermine went off. Next thing I knew he was sprawling by the side of me and that was it."

With the beachhead secure, the next stage was to install the Mulberry harbours.

Richard and his comrades had spend many weeks before the invasion secretly building the harbours in Scotland.

But the next mammoth task saw hundreds of the prefabricated structures brought across the Channel. The resulting ports, assembled in just 12 days by thousands of engineers, featured 6 miles of steel roadways.

It was a pleasing moment, Richard said: "To say I was there when the keel of that thing went down to the completion - I was a very lucky chap."

The harbour which Richard helped build became known as Port Winston, allowing two-and-a-half million men and half a million vehicles to join the fighting. It was an engineering feat which sped up the end of the war.

"It was still operating in November of that year - built in June and still operating. The people who built the Mulberry harbour knew that an army marches on its stomach. To be honest, without Mulberry Harbour the invasion would've flopped", said Richard.

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