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Pte Lewis J. Curtis 5th Wiltshire Regiment
Nearly seventy years after he was killed in action, Pte Lewis James Curtis of B-Coy, 5th Battalion The Wiltshire Regiment was re-interred in CWGC Arnhem-Oosterbeek War Cemetery in the Netherlands on Wednesday, 3rd October 2012.
Pte Curtis was born in 1924 in Liskeard, Cornwall; he attended Liskeard Church School and worked in the Co-Op before enlisting in the Army in Colchester on 4th March 1943. He served in North West Europe and was killed on 2nd October 1944 during an artillery barrage, in the aftermath of Operation Market-Garden.
His remains were discovered in a shallow field grave at De Laar Farm south of Arnhem (now Schuytgraaf housing estate) in 2003, recovered and eventually identified by the Dutch Army Recovery Unit in 2008 using Army dental records.
The service on 3rd October was attended by his niece and nephew and their families. The Honour Guard was found by The 5th Battalion The Rifles who will accord Pte Lewis full military honours. The Royal Netherlands Army National Reserve Band provided the music at the ceremony.
19 year-old Pte Curtis had landed in Normandy and had taken part in all major battles such as Hill 112, Mont Pincon, The Odon box and the crossing of the Seine at Vernon. By the time 4th & 5th Wilts (129th Brigade, 43rd Wessex Division) had reached Arnhem, they had lost 250 men. Unfortunately they had arrived too late to help relieve 1st Airborne Division, though the battalion took part in a diversion during operation Berlin, the withdrawal of the remnants of 1st Airborne Division over the Rhine. Pte Lewis Curtis was killed in the early hours of 2 October 1944 during the battle for the level crossing east of De Laar farm (B-Coy HQ, now Buitenplaats community centre) by an artillery barrage prior to a German infantry attack. As Captain McMath wrote in the 5th Wilts history: “This was the fiercest fighting the battalion had ever experienced.”
The re-interment of Pte Curtis was followed by a commemoration service at the Wiltshire Regiment monument at Arnhem-Schuytgraaf, in memory of the officers and men of 4th & 5th Battalion The Wiltshire Regiment whom were killed during “The Battle for the Island”. The service was attended by Pte Curtis’ family, representatives of the Regimental Association and a party of 5th Battalion The Rifles.