Ernest Harry LEWIS

A real tragic death.

On 9 July 1943, the first landing crafts of Op Husky were seen passing off HQ Malta Command Pembroke at 15:00 hrs heading for the beaches in Sicily. The sea was very rough with a strong North West breeze.

British and Canadian troops landed at Pachino, Sicily at 03:00 on 10 July 1943. By 20:00 hrs the first three walking wounded casualties arrived at 45 General Hospital Malta. These included malaria cases as well as injured Prisoner Of War. A soldier of the Black Watch was brought back to Malta from the Sicilian beaches. He had been vomiting violently in the landing craft during his passage to Sicily, but recovered sufficiently to retain food, and be sent back to Sicily.

Sadly, he was subsequently found dead in the landing craft. A postmortem examination revealed a right sided spontaneous pneumothorax; he had no evidence of lung disease.