Hero was badly wounded in Monty’s battle for North Africa
AMIDLAND World War Two hero who became a legendary Desert Rat has died aged 101, more than 70 years after losing his arm in the war.
Les Cherrington had his left arm blown off in a direct hit from an 88mm enemy gun in March 1943.
Amazingly, he picked the limb off the floor of the tank, climbed out of the open turret and was hit in the back by machine gun fire.
He lay unconscious for 24 hours in a trench until he was found by a New Zealand soldier the next morning.
In 2017, Mr Cherrington, of Shifnal, near Wolverhampton, recounted his involvement in the Battle of the Mareth Line, which broke out when General Bernard Montogomery attacked the 22-mile front on March 20, 1943. Mr Cherrington, who served with the Staffordshire Yeomanry Queens Own Royal Regiment, said: “In Tunisia we met the 71st Panzer Division. “We were going through a gap in the mountains and we got about 12 tanks through the gap.
“As we were lining up ready to go into action they opened fire with 88mm guns – anti-tank guns – and knocked six of our tanks out.
“I was in one of them. It set on fire and I received burns on my hands, face and chest. My left arm was shot away at the elbow. It was on the bottom of the tank and I picked it up and put it on my shoulders to save it. “And then after I got some senses and got conscious I got through the cupola at the top of the tank, and slipped down the front of the tank. “While I was sliding down the machine gunned me and it turned me over on my back.
“I was lying in the sun at about half five in the afternoon and must’ve got unconscious. When I woke up again the moon was hanging up in the sky and I turned over on my stomach and started crawling.
“I came to a slit trench and fell in, sat up in it and the blood was running from my arm into the trench all night. I couldn’t stop it. I had no bandage. I went unconscious again
Iwith the blood going. When I became conscious again the sun was shining. I felt myself going with the loss of blood in the trench then someone put a big long-handled spade behind me and pulled me. “Doing that roused me and shouted and they said, ‘Golly, there’s a bloke still alive here.’
“They pulled me out and gave me a syringe in the arm and knocked me out and took me to their field hospital. I woke up five days later in Tripoli hospital and that’s how I came back to England on that stretcher with the Desert Rats on the hospital ship, about 1,000 of us.
“I didn’t know if I’d survive at the time, but they managed to pick me up and take me to hospital.
“I was found by a New Zealand soldier when they were cleaning the battle field.”
After weeks in hospital, Mr Cherrington came back to the UK in August 1943 where he had several skin graft operations.
Unable to resume service, he began a 40-year career as a military policeman at RAF Cosford.
After leaving the military, Mr Cherrington settled in Shifnal, Shropshire, and volunteered at the RAF Museum and was president of the town male voice choir.
On his 100th birthday last year, Les revealed the secret to longevity was “taking life as it comes” and having a “drop of whisky in my tea”.
After Mr Cherrington died on Saturday, an RAF Cosford spokesman said: “We will always be thankful that we had Les and his generation looking after us during World War Two.”
My left arm was shot away .... It was on the bottom of the tank and I picked it up and put it on my shoulders to save it Les Cherrington