The Chronicle, Summer 2019

33 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Nevill Lawton Smith

Peter Coop

Tony Lewis

Tony Lewis had already had an eventful war, evacuated from Cherbourg with the Dorset Regiment when France fell before going on to fight in Norway, Algeria, and North Africa. Only six days after D-Day, as a result of the wounding of Lord Lovat, Commander of the

1st Special Service Brigade, Lewis was chosen to lead No 6 Commando. At the age of only 24, he became the youngest Lieutenant Colonel (albeit Temporary) to command a combat unit in the British Army. Field Marshal Montgomery was astonished at his youthful appearance and always referred to him as the ‘boy colonel’. Lewis led his unit through a succession of engagements as the allies moved inland, often in the thick of the fighting. In 1945 he was again in charge of No 6 Commando as they pushed into Germany capturing Wesel and Osnabruck, then crossing the Weser under heavy barrage. The crossing of the next river, the Aller, required an assault on a heavily defended bridge. ‘Tony – take the bridge – Out’, was the stark and doubtless chilling order issued. Lewis decided on an old-fashioned bayonet charge straight into the enemy, the last such charge undertaken in World War Two by the British Army. Later, Lewis led a successful crossing of the River Elbe, taking the town of Lauenburg a few days before the surrender. He was awarded the DSO (pinned on by Montgomery) as well as receiving the Croix de Guerre from the French. In 1953 he was awarded the MBE.