Eighty years ago World War II was raging at points around the globe. On this day in 1942 - Saturday, June 27 - Adam Wakenshaw from Newcastle, a private in the Durham Light Infantry, was killed in a ferocious battle on the desert sands of Egypt.
But before he finally succumbed to terrible injuries, the 28-year-old showed such remarkable bravery that he was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross - Britain's highest award for military valour - and his selfless courage in the face of death was reported in newspapers across the country.
The front page of the Daily Mirror reported how Pte Wakenshaw who "with an arm blown off, fired his gun in Egypt until he died, has been awarded the VC". But the paper also told how his 33-year-old widow, Lily, and their two sons, George and Thomas, were living in near poverty in two modest rooms in a tenement in Duke Street, Newcastle.
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A simple memorial service was held at Pte Wakenshaw's old school, St Aloysius' in Newcastle, and a grander one at a packed St Mary's RC Cathedral in the city. The VC, it was reported, would be presented in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace, with family members including the dead soldier's seven-year-old son, George, in attendance.
It was noted, however, that George would need a new pair of shoes for the trip and his mother simply couldn't afford them. As various dignitaries visited the Wakenshaws' humble home, the Evening Chronicle was prompted to set up the 'VC Shilling Fund' to help the stricken family.
For boys growing up on Tyneside in the 1940s and 50s, Pte Adam Wakenshaw became a playground hero. As the war slips from living memory, we remember and celebrate him as one of Newcastle’s greatest ever sons.
He was born in Duke Street, Elswick, in 1914, the youngest of six children. After leaving school he worked at Elswick pit and, aged 18, married Lily in 1932. They went on to have three children, including a son, John, who was killed in a road accident, aged just seven. Life was tough for the family, and in times of high unemployment, Adam would take to the streets as a 'hawker' rather than go on the dole.
In World War II, Pte Wakenshaw served in the 9th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. In the early morning light of June 27, 1942, he found himself in action in Mersa Matruh, Egypt.
After the fall of Tobruk, the DLI was part of a defence line facing the formidable German Afrika Korps and their Italian allies. The Newcastle soldier was manning a 20-pounder tank gun alongside his crew when the Germans attacked with deadly mortar and shell fire.
Pte Wakenshaw’s gun knocked out one enemy artillery vehicle, but it was hit when another German mobile gun opened fire, killing all the British gunner crew apart from himself and Pte Eric Mohn.
Pte Wakenshaw suffered horrific wounds and his left arm above the elbow was blown off. But incredibly, as the Germans began to advance, Pte Wakenshaw dragged himself to the gun and fired five more rounds, destroying another enemy vehicle.
A second enemy shell threw him away from the gun again and seriously wounded him even further, while Pte Mohn was killed. For a second time, a badly disfigured Pte Wakenshaw managed to drag himself back to the gun.
But as he loaded another round and prepared to fire with one arm, he was killed instantly when his ammunition store suffered a direct hit. He was dead at just 28. His heroic efforts, however, gave many of his comrades time to escape.
Pte Wakenhaw was buried where he fell and was awarded a posthumous VC in September 1942. His widow and sons were presented with the medal at Buckingham Palace by King George VI.
Meanwhile, at El Alamein, Montgomery’s Allied forces would soon inflict the first major defeat on Rommel’s Afrika Korps. In 1943, Pte Wakenhaw’s body was re-buried at El Alamein Cemetery in Egypt with full military honours.
Today there is a stained-glass window in memory of Adam in St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle, while the city’s Wakenshaw Junction is named after the great man. As the Chronicle reported in 1942, "his name will live for ever more in the history of the city".
On the 80th anniversary of his heroic death, we recall Adam Wakenshaw and salute the bravery of all those who fought and died for the freedoms and way of life we take for granted today.
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