Major Peter Lewis RIP

Kyt · Jan 11, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4218443/Major-Peter-Lewis.html

Major Peter Lewis, who has died aged 90, won a Military Cross in 1942 and made a successful escape from captivity the following year; after the war, he became a well-known writer on motor racing.

On June 5 1942 a strong patrol, led by Captain Ian English, set out for Stricklands Post on the Gazala Line in North Africa. The force was supported by a troop of South African armoured cars consisting of four carriers, two sections of mortars, a section of anti-tank guns, some 25-pounder field guns as well as two rifle sections of the 8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry (8 DLI), commanded by Lewis.

When dawn broke, the patrol halted to discover enemy positions in broken ground. English decided to put in an immediate attack, and sent two of the carriers under Lewis to the shelter of a ridge where they could give covering fire. They encountered heavy small arms fire as they advanced, and English was wounded, though he managed to get back to Stricklands in a truck.

But weak from loss of blood, he was able to tell Major Clarke, who had just arrived, to find out what was going on and to say that any further attack would have to be supported by artillery fire. Clarke sent in the four carriers in two waves, with the infantry riding on the two rear vehicles. Zero hour was fixed for 9.15am with supporting fire from the artillery, mortar and machine guns fixed for a minute before until a minute after zero.

Unfortunately fire started a minute late. Clarke's frantic hand signals to delay the attack were misinterpreted by Lewis who thought that he was being urged on. As he led the first two carriers into the attack, the mortars and machine guns stopped firing but the artillery continued. To the astonishment of Lewis and his crew, they suddenly found themselves in the middle of two enemy companies. For a moment it seemed like a cowboy film as they wove from side to side to dodge trenches and shells while shooting at everything in sight as the two rear carriers raced up with the infantry.

Some Italians in their slit trenches were waving white handkerchiefs but a group of anti-tank gunners tried to get their gun into action. Lewis's carrier charged the gun, going right over it, while Sergeant Cairns, armed with a Tommy gun beside him, dealt with the gunners.

This was the signal for 10 officers and 210 other ranks to surrender. Lewis was awarded an immediate Military Cross and Sergeant Cairns the Distinguished Conduct Medal for their part in the action.

Peter John Lewis was born in Leicester on August 11 1918 and educated at Lindisfarne College, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He left, aged 17, to become a sub-editor on Everybody's magazine in Fleet Street, and then to report on the latest trends in music and motor racing – interests that would feature throughout his life. In 1937, he signed on with the 28th London Regiment (Artists Rifles) and, after being commissioned into the 2nd/6th Queen's Royal Regiment, went to France in April 1940 with the BEF.

In November 1942 Lewis led B company, 8 DLI, in Operation Supercharge at El Alamein, where he was wounded and was the only officer in his company to survive. The following March he was wounded again on the Mareth Line in Tunisia, when one of his officers stepped on a mine and was killed. At Catania, Sicily, he was wounded once more, taken prisoner and sent to an Italian POW camp at Lucca.

After the armistice between the Allies and the Italians was signed in September 1943, the Germans took command and put Lewis and his fellow POWs on a train bound for Germany. As the train left Mantova station some of the prisoners distracted the guards while Lewis and Flight Lieutenant Tony Snell squeezed through a small window and jumped out. They walked through the night and arrived at a farm, which had no telephone lines, and where they received a meal, shelter and labourers' clothes to put over their battledress. On emerging from the hayloft next morning, they found that rats had gnawed through their socks.

After six days walking south, their wounds were causing problems but they managed to make contact with the Resistance, who provided them with a "safe house" in Modena, where they laid low for almost two months. Early in December, escorted by a series of guides, they reached Milan by train on which Lewis avoided conversation by pretending to be deaf and dumb. The pair now took another train to Campocologno, where they were met by smugglers who led them to the Swiss frontier, a journey which involved a 14-hour walk and a climb of 7,000ft.

After being repatriated to England in November 1944 Lewis was mentioned in dispatches while Snell received one of the rare DSOs granted exclusively for escaping from the enemy.

Lewis retired from the Army in 1946 in the acting rank of major. He returned to his job with Everybody's magazine, becoming general manager in 1951. During this period, he raised funds for a school for underprivileged boys in Modena by serialising his escape story.

He was motor racing correspondent for The Observer from 1954 to 1960, and also worked for Fleetway Publications and Condé Nast before retiring in the late 1960s.

Lewis's books included Alf Francis, Racing Mechanic (1957); Dicing with Death (1961); Motor Racing through the Fifties (1992); and The Price of Freedom (2001); in 2006, with Major English, who was awarded an MC and two Bars, he wrote a history of the Durhams during the war.

Peter Lewis died on December 12. He married, in 1940, Patricia Muggleton, who survives him with their two sons.
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Antipodean Andy · Jan 11, 2009

Is The Price of Freedom his memoirs perhaps? Not a man to let anything get in his way. RIP.

As the train left Mantova station some of the prisoners distracted the guards while Lewis and Flight Lieutenant Tony Snell squeezed through a small window and jumped out
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Snell DSO. What else do we know about him? I'll start a thread if there's not one here already.

spidge · Jan 11, 2009

You could tell his story and everyone would think it was a John Wayne hero movie.

What a guy!

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