VIDEO: The 'forgotten' story of the commandos on D-Day brought to life at an event in Cwmbran

Mrs Povey was my history teacher in comprehensive school. She was great and I learned a lot in her classroom.

But learning history hasn’t been on my conscious mind for over 30 years. Yesterday that all changed when I popped along to a military re-enactment event in Blan Bran Community Woodland in Upper Cwmbran.

These volunteers had created a camp, mess area and shooting range to show a range of weapons. But their main role just simply to chat to people who stopped to find out more.

In a nutshell, it was history brought to life. The P Commando RN Re-enactment Group don’t want the story of what the commandos did on D-Day to be forgotten. This unit’s role in helping to make the beaches safe (maybe that should be safer) for the landings is incredible. We’ve seen the movies, but we know what Hollywood can do for a story- and miss out on vital parts.

One of the volunteers. Paul Thomas, kindly took part in this video and explained why the group organise these events. I took away so much knowledge. He showed me the signs used on the beaches to mark out sections where the commandos had prepared ready for the landing soldiers to know where they should run once they jumped off the boats. It seems crazy saying this, but the signs reminded me of the ones you see on Porthcawl beach to show swimmers where lifeguards are keeping an eye. But these signs had a much more poignant role.