Wales in the World Wars

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Wales, as part of the United Kingdom^[i], participated as part of the allies in World War I (1914–1918) and the allies in World War II (1939–1945).

Just under 275,000 soldiers from Wales fought in World War I, with 35,000 combat deaths, in particular at Mametz Wood and Passchendaele. Welsh battalions also had other encounters on the Western, Tsingtao and Gallipoli fronts during the war. Frongoch, in Merionethshire, was the site of a World War I internment camp, initially housing German prisoners of war, but later Irish republicans after the Easter Rising.

In World War II, 15,000 soldiers from Wales were killed, with notable regiments such as the Royal Welch Fusiliers, had battled in the Western and south-east Asian theatres, whilst the South Wales Borderers had battled in the Mediterranean and Middle East, Norwegian and Normandy campaigns. Cardiff, Swansea and Pembroke experienced bombing raids from the German Luftwaffe during World War II, with the Cardiff Docks being a strategic bombing target for the German air force as it was a major coal port.

Just prior to World War II, a "bombing school" of RAF Penrhos was set up in Penyberth, Caernarfonshire, which received opposition from Welsh nationalists. The bombing facility was used throughout World War II. Island Farm near Bridgend, Glamorgan, housed German and other Axis prisoners of war, of whom had later attempted the largest escape by German POWs in Britain during World War II. Island Farm later housed senior SS military leaders awaiting extradition for the post-war Nuremberg trials.
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