Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dunkirk was on fire behind & we thought we’d missed t last boat. Then I saw a traw
raised £1,230 for them by asking for donations instead of birthday gifts. Speaking at home in Rustington, West Sussex, Lewis says: “I’ve heard people talking about the Dunkirk spirit getting us through this coronavirus crisis. I know they mean ‘grit your teeth and get on with it’ but there’s no comparison to what we went through.”
Dunkirk was just the start of Lew’s Second World War journey – one he made with his lifelong pal Joe Clark. Lew, from Bermondsey, South London, was 17 when he followed Joe, three years his senior, into the Territorial Army. When war broke out they joined the 5th Division of 91st Field Regiment Royal Artillery. On October 2, 1939 they were sent to France.
Lew says: “I soon realised the Territorial Army was just playing at soldiers. This was the real thing. We made our way to the border with Germany and started off digging trenches and gun pits.”
In May the following year the Battle of France was under way and Lew’s division saw heavy action as the Allies were driven back. Landing in Kent after Dunkirk, Lew, Joe and their mates were sent up North to reform and get new kit.
“Then we were off again,” says Lew. “We went to Ireland for nine months, then South Africa before invading Madagascar in 1942. Many of the lads got malaria and we had to bury a lot at sea.” Then it was on to India, Persia and Syria, where Lew got malaria, surviving several bouts – as well as dysentery.
After a spell in Egypt his unit invaded Sicily in July 1943. They fought up through Italy, where Lew earned his sergeant’s stripes. But in 1944 Joe was injured in the Battle of Monte Cassino and shipped home. Lew sheds a tear as he recalls saying farewell and remembering another pal killed in the same attack.
“It was hard,” he says. “But you just had to pull yourself together and get on with it.” Lew fought on through France
A PILOT who won the Victoria Cross celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday.
Flt Lt John Cruickshank, of Aberdeen, earned the honour, the highest award for valour in the armed forces, aged 24.
He flew his Catalina seaplane through and into Germany – where, on May 8, 1945 he heard the Nazis had surrendered. He says: “We could hear German troops cheering so we went and found them.
“And we shook hands with them. After relieving them of t watches and stuff, of course.”
Lew made it home on leave in Janu 1946 and was demobbed in July.
He married his childhood sweeth Doris and they had children Stewart Wendy. He also caught up with Joe, w married and became a builder. Joe five years ago and Lew misses him
a hail of flak over Norway on July 17, 1944, when German antiaircraft fire killed his navigator.
A member of No. 210 Squadron, John was hit in 72 places, and had serious lung injuries but kept flying
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