Sergeant-Major Ernest A Lucas MM

Ernest Alexis Lucas was serving with the 10th Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry when it was chosen for conversion to the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion in November 1942.

17 Officers and 227 Other Ranks attended parachute course 41, at RAF Ringway, which ran from 3 to 17 December 1943. Sergeant Lucas’ parachute instructor’s comments; “Well above the average. Consistently good throughout course.”

He jumped into Normandy on 6 June 1944 as the Platoon Sergeant of 4 Platoon, B Company. Sergeant Lucas was awarded the Military Medal twice, within 35 days, for his conduct in Normandy.

The first citation reads:

This NCO was one of the parachute troops who dropped behind the German lines in Normandy on the night 5th/6th June 1944. He was dropped several miles off the target and actually landed on the wrong side of the River Dives. Using a small pocket compass he picked up his bearings and set out to rejoin his unit through country flooded and occupied by the enemy. He joined up with others who were similarly lost and took charge of a party of nine of them. Only a few of those could swim which made the crossing of the numerous dykes particularly difficult. He took sixteen days to rejoin his unit and during this time he had several brushes with the enemy. When he finally rejoined he brought very accurate information of all the enemy positions which he had noted on his journey. He then led a patrol to the scene of his last encounter to collect his wounded.

This was announced in the London Gazette on 19 October 1944.

The second citation reads:

On 10th July 1944 Sergeant Lucas's company took part in a raid on an enemy locality in the Bois de Bavent area. The return route was by means of a gully which was discovered to be heavily booby trapped and covered by ranged mortar fire. There was no other route that could be used but additional casualties were suffered when the enemy moved up two Machine Guns and fired directly into the gully from close range. Sergeant Lucas immediately posted himself with a bren gun on the slope of the gully side and returned the Machine Gun fire. He kept these Machine Guns under control by himself during the time that his company were moving through the gully. By this action he undoubtedly saved many lives and completely disregarded his own safety as he was in constant danger from mortar bombs and exploding booby traps in addition to deliberately drawing the fire of the two Machine Guns onto himself. When the company had passed through the gully he handed his bren gun to the rear man and himself worked forward again to join the rear party who had remained on the objective.

When he had joined this party his calmness and efficiency were an inspiration to all. Finally he rendered invaluable service in the very difficult and dangerous job of evacuating the casualties. The splendid example and work of this NCO were particularly valuable on this raid as the company suffered heavily in officer casualties and several reinforcements, who were fresh to battle conditions, were taking part in it. There is no doubt that these reinforcements, as well as all others who were present, were inspired at a most trying period by Sergeant Lucas's heroism.

This was announced in the London Gazette on 21 December 1944.

By March 1945 Sergeant Lucas had been promoted and took over as the Sergeant Major of ‘B’ Company. He also took part in the Ardennes campaign and the Rhine Crossing.

He was discharged from Regular Army service on 17 November 1945.