St Peter’s Probus

ON Tuesday, September 13, St Peter’s Probus held its monthly meeting at the Royal Ivy Bush Hotel, Carmarthen.

Chairman Alan opened the meeting and asked members to stand in silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II. This was followed by a moving eulogy by the Reverend Mike Shepard, the club’s newly elected chaplain.

Alan then took reports from the club’s officers. Secretary Roger P said that no correspondence had been received and there were no matters arising from the minutes of the June meeting.

Treasurer Martin handed out spreadsheets of the year’s accounts to December 31, 2021 and said that they fairly reflected the club’s finances, but were somewhat blurred due to Covid and other postponed club activities. An absolute assessment of financial activity over the period of January 2020 to December 2021 was disrupted by holiday deposits being carried over. The club, however, had a healthy bank balance and made a small profit over the two years.

Following a proposal from the club committee, the meeting resolved that future holiday arrangements should be left to a tour company to save the club from risky situations. Also, that at the January 2023 meeting the committee should present some holiday proposals that could be suitable to the club members.

Roger P reported that no trip had been arranged for September, but that Roger D had options for the future that needed a bit more research.

Eric reported that there were four regular bowls players, but due to the Queen’s funeral the Monday session had been cancelled and rebooked for Wednesday.

Speakers’ secretary Guy reported that the following speakers had been agreed: October – Chris Delaney; November - Dafydd Llewellyn, Dyfed-powys police and crime commissioner; December – the manager of the Liquid Gas

Terminal Milford Haven; January – no speaker as it was the club’s annual dinner; February – James Evans on world sorestry.

Welfare secretary Arthur spoke of those members who were not in the best of health and how they were progressing.

The chairman introduced the speaker, Emrys Davies of the Bridgend Probus Club.

Emrys explained that in his working life he had been an engineer with the Ford Motor Company and some years ago had spent about 18 months near Bremen, Germany, sourcing production machinery for the company.

Emrys said that his talk was dedicated to Gareth Edwards, a close friend and was about the Valintin Project. This was a Nazi attempt to mass produce submarines in an immense bomb proof bunker. After the war the bunker had been used as a NATO store until it was decommissioned and then became a museum.

The submarines were to be made in nine sections manufactured elsewhere in Germany and brought for assembly at the bunker on the River Weser. In all 118 prototype U-boats were built but only four were commissioned and none of those saw action. The building of the bunker was done with slave labour from a complex of 80 concentration camps in the area. The workers were mostly Russians and Poles with some French and two British.

Just before it was liberated in 1945 the bunker was bombed by the 617 Dambusters squadron using 10-ton grand slam bombs with three hits that only just penetrated the 4.5m roof and caused little damage. It was fortunate that due to Nazi mismanagement and the swift action by the liberating armies that the facility did not reach its full potential.

Emrys was most warmly thanked for a fascinating and inspiring talk and members then broke for lunch at the hotel.