Framed Portrait Photograph of D-Day Veteran Percy Lewis. Ove...

1/2

Hammer

£55

Fees

Framed Portrait Photograph of D-Day Veteran Percy Lewis. Overall size including frame 76cm x 56cm. This is his story: "I was a wireless operator and we arrived at Queen’s Section, Sword Beach at 11am on D Day. There were boats everywhere! Eventually we went ashore and I was told to set up my Wireless Set No. 18 on the beach, as it was our job to communicate with the men back on our ship. Problem was that when we had the wireless set up, there was no one back on the ship left to receive our messages anyway, so we sat there on the beach from 4pm until 10am the following day doing nothing! We were posted to a captured pillbox near the canal, that had two German Spandau machine guns and a periscope and we were told to keep an eye on the Germans who were still on the far side of the canal. Eventually we broke out of Normandy and when we got to Holland, I was injured by a mortar in my ankle and was flown home on a Dakota. As soon as I was fit again, I was sent straight back to the line. One night, twelve of us were advancing into a village. We knew the Germans were around because on a quiet night with no wind you could smell them, as they used a soap that was scented. I discovered that my wireless arial was broken and I was out of spares, so my officer told me to go back. Now on my own, I headed for a house for some cover when two German Paratroopers came out and I thought that this was it! Instead, they took me prisoner. While you knew the dangers that you faced, you never thought that you’d ever be taken prisoner. I was the only one of the twelve that night to survive without a scratch, as all the others were killed or injured. Then I was sent to a POW camp in Germany called Stalag 11B, which I found out later was right next to Belsen. I was 10 st 10lbs when I arrived and only 6 st 2lbs when I was liberated by our lads on 16th April 1945. This is the army for you! Instead of sending the Catering Corps with something like soup for us all, they sent tinned fruit that gave us all severe dysentery. Eventually I arrived home, although the kind chap who gave me a lift to my house asked me if I was alright because I looked so thin and ill. Dad opened the door and shouted Mum, who nearly smothered me. All they had received was a telegram telling them that I was missing in action and had obviously feared the worst. Two days after later, a telegram arrived saying that I was alive and well and would be home soon!".