Thread by @SAS_LRDG_ROH

#OTD Lt Jock Lewes, original #SAS officer, was killed in action

David Stirling persuaded him to join in Aug 41: "I finally resigned myself to serving in the Middle East for the duration, and as a result here I am, second-in-command of a detachment of parachutists and liking it."

Aside from inventing the Lewes Bomb to destroy enemy aircraft on SAS raids, he designed the unit's wings. Stirling, educated at Cambridge, chose the primary colour as Cambridge Blue whilst Lewes added the darker Oxford Blue. They were produced in Cairo by tailors John Jones & Co.

The wings could be privately purchased by anyone producing an issued chit as proof of qualification (personal interview with Bob McDougall, 2007).

The set seen in this thread are one of three bought by McDougall in early 1943, by which time their execution had been refined.

The recipient was entitled to wear them on his right arm until awarded ‘Operational Wings’ by his Commanding Officer, generally after completing three operations. They would then be transferred to the left breast and the enhanced entitlement entered in the individual’s AB.64.

This convention continued throughout WW2 in all SAS Regts, as well as being worn by para trained personnel within Middle East Raiding Forces, including the LRDG. Although now solely worn on the right arm, the design has barely changed, modern wings being issued rather than bought

Lewes took part in the first SAS operation, SQUATTER, on the eve of the British offensive, Op CRUSADER, to attack airfields at Tmimi & Gazala behind enemy lines in Libya. Having dropped over a large area in gale force winds the parties could not regroup to undertake the raids ...

Their kit had also been scattered and what little remained was ruined by rain. Lewes therefore led his team of nine to a pre-arranged RV with Capt ‘Jake’ Easonsmith’s R.1 Patrol, LRDG, on the evening of 19 November 1941 (the SAS survivors seen in the picture taken by Easonsmith).

After joint raids with the LRDG, Lewes’ patrol left Jalo on 26 December 1941, being transported by the LRDG's T.2 Patrol. Three days later they were dropped 27 kilometres short of Nofilia airfield, which they attacked that night ...

Aircraft were widely dispersed and the bombs placed on the first plane went off before the second could be reached. With the alarm raised Lewes withdrew, reaching an RV with Captain Bill Fraser and the LRDG after a difficult compass march ...

Spotted in the open desert by aircraft on the 30th, the withdrawing group was subjected to intense bombing and strafing from 1000hrs to 1600hrs, an artery in Lewes’ knee being severed by a canon shell. He died before the bleeding could be arrested and was buried where he fell.

In November 1942 Stirling (seen here on the left of the photo) wrote to Lewes' mother:

"Jock (on the right) could far more seriously claim to be the founder of L Det and the SAS Regt than I."

Lewes remains could not be located after the war, Jim Almonds noting in his diary:

"I thought of Jock, one of the bravest men I have ever met, an officer and a gentleman, lying out there in the desert barely covered with sand ...

... No one will stop by his grave or pay homage to a brave heart that has ceased to beat – not even a stone marks the spot."

Lewes is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial to the missing and by a statue at Stirling Lines, the HQ of the modern SAS.

In 2016 I published "The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941-47". It sold out quickly, the profits being used to fund memorials to those whose lives and achievements are described.

If you would like to register your interest in a revised edition, please email [e-mail]