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Auction: 25113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 241

(x) Africa Service Medal 1939-45 (104476 H. Willmot); India Service Medal 1939-45, unnamed as issued, about very fine (2)

Harry Willmot was born on 11 January 1913 in Rhodesia and enlisted on 15 January 1940, serving with South Africa's Union Defence Force in the 7th Field Artillery as a Lance Bombardier. Willmot was captured at Tobruk on 21 June 1942, likely after the Axis capture of the city, a notable defeat for the Allied forces during the Second World War. Control of the Mediterranean Sea was vital in order to defend the Suez Canal and Britain's supply of the Perian Gulf. By the 21 June, the Germans, under the leadership of General Erwin Rommel, had pushed the British back into Egypt, much to the embarrassment of Major General Hendrick Klopper, the South African military commander of the 2nd South African Infantry Division and the Tobruk garrison.

Willmot was likely captured here and sent to Camp 75 in Italy as a Prisoner of War. He was then promptly sent to Stalag VIII A in Germany where he worked in the brick and tile factory (himself a carpenter by trade). While his ex-prisoner of war questionnaire states Willmot was sent to both of these camps, elsewhere on other documents it is recorded that he may have spent time at Stalag VIIIC, Sagan.

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Estimate

Starting price
£30