Somme’s soldier of fortune...
Hero survived solo storming of trench, being shot 6 times then a WWII air raid
A VICTORIA Cross awarded to one of the luckiest First World War survivors could fetch £140,000 as it is put on sale a century later.
Corporal Sidney Day was given the top bravery honour for single-handedly storming a German trench, killing two gunners and taking the rest prisoner.
Back at his section, an enemy grenade landed at his feet, which he threw to safety – saving many lives.
Norwich-born Cpl Day, who served with the 9th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, was shot six times during the war and later survived a Luftwaffe air raid.
At the bloody Battle of the Somme in 1916, he suffered four bullet wounds.
He took refuge in a shell hole for 12 hours before crawling three miles back to a dressing station when night fell.
Incredibly, a packet of postcards and compass case in his pockets stopped more bullets hitting his heart and groin.
He also cheated death at the Battle of Loos in 1915, having been shot while trying to rescue his badly wounded commanding officer in No Man’s Land.
Lieutenant Thomas Stevens was killed while Cpl Day, given up for dead, spent three days making his way back to British lines. His heroic trench raid came at Hargicourt in August 2017 and he was presented with the VC by King George V the following January.
But by March he was back in northern France before being wounded again and taken prisoner at Lys in April.
After the war, he opened a tearoom with his wife in Portsmouth. Sadly, his shop and home were destroyed in a Second World War air raid, which killed 600 civilians. He escaped without injury and died in 1959, aged 68.
His medals and wartime possessions, including the lifesaving compass case, have now been put on sale by relatives.
Mark Quayle, of London auctioneer Dix Noonan Webb, said: “Sidney Day’s survival in the First World War was nothing short of miraculous.
“He suffered wounds, was saved from serious injury on two occasions when equipment and personal possessions deflected bullets and was twice forced to crawl back to British lines.” The sale takes place on February 28. Oyster dredger Vanguard, which saved 600 soldiers from Dunkirk, will be restored in hometown Burnham-onCrouch, Essex, after volunteers rescued her from being smashed up for firewood.