It was during the first world war that the
Llandudno Brigade (Royal Welch Fusiliers) a major part of the 38th
Welsh Division and the 53rd Welsh Division Territorial Army Volunteers
took part of the battle of the Somme. The Llandudno Brigade was ordered
to take Mametz Wood, which had been converted by the Germans during two
relatively quiet years into an extremely well defended position,
perhaps the best defended on the entire front.
At the insistence of the French, General Haig committed the Llandudno
Brigade to a frontal attack on the German positions. In two days of
fighting, the 38th Welsh Division (which included all the Llandudno
volunteers) lost 1,187 men with 2,806 wounded and brought about the
total destruction of Mametz village by shelling.
After the war, the people of Llandudno (including returning survivors
from the 38th Welsh Division) contributed generously to the fund for
the reconstruction of the village of Mametz.
In July 1939, the 69th Medium Regiment of the Caernavon
&
Denbeigh Yeomandry was formed as a Territorial Army regiment based at
the Argyll Street Drill Hall in Llandudno. By May 1940, after training
at St. Asaph, they had just arrived at Le Harvre and marched half
across Northern France to Coutrai in Belgium when they found themselves
caught up in the massive evacuation of retreating Belgian troops. They
soon found themselves subjected to intensive aerial fire and suffered
their first casualties. In the retreat, this lightly armed artillery
regiment (who after fighting for many days, until almost without ammo,
they, under orders, had destroyed their artillery) found themselves led
into an ambush at the Flanders town of Wormhout.
The ambush had been laid by the notorious Wilhelm Mohnke commandant of
the S.S. Regiment Leibstandarte
Adolf Hitler. Just a few reached nearby Dunkirk and were among
the very last to be evacuated on the Isle of Man Steam Packet
'Tynwald'. All the remainder (save one who lived to tell the
tale) were shot or taken prisoner and then massacred by the Germans in
a barn at Esquelbec. It was two days after the massacre that a burial
party of Austrian soldiers discovered Gunner Parry still alive and took
him to a field hospital manned by captured members of the Royal Army
Medical Corps, which included Staff Sergeant Eric Fernhead (a
pharmacist from Llandudno) who recognized Gunner Parry and nursed him
back to health. Only after they had both safely returned to Llandudno
did the world learn of the Massacre at Esquelbec in Wormhout on 28th
May 1940.
Llandudno was formally twinned with Wormhout on 14th April 1989 since
when there have been many contacts. The citizens of Wormhout consider
themselves to be Flemish not French and when a bowling team from
Wormhout visited Llandudno at Easter 2003 it was (in addition to
studying our local Crown Green Bowling) to demonstrate to our local
bowlers the Flemish version of boules - so different from the
French. In Flemish Boules, two markers were placed about 22 yards
apart and a team of six had one boule each. The boules were
wooden wheels about 10 inches in diameter and about three inches wide
and weighted on one side. The boules were rolled towards the
marker and required considerable skill to adjust to the bias.