Description: 8x5 inch letter hand written and signed by Joseph Coombe-Tennant, please note crease to bottom LH corner. An amazing signature! In 1936, spurning the possibility of a career in academia, Henry joined the Welsh Guards as a second lieutenant. After the German invasion of Belgium, Holland and France in May 1940, Henry and his comrades were sent to the Hook of Holland to try and stiffen Dutch resolve in the face of the invader. Though they did help facilitate the evacuation of the Queen of the Netherlands, the Hook was a lost cause and the battalion was soon brought back to England. With the German army advancing at an alarming pace, towards the end of May Henry was sent to Boulogne with the intention of preventing the port from falling into enemy hands. This proved impossible and Henry and around 30 of his comrades found themselves trapped in the town. After taking shelter in some bomb-damaged houses, the arrival of enemy tanks and infantry left Henry’s commanding officer with no option other than surrender. On 25 May 1940, Henry Coombe-Tennant became a prisoner of war. He spent some time in the prisoner-of-war camp in Laufen, Germany, before being transferred to a camp at Warburg, Westphalia. There, he entertained camp inmates with his piano-playing skills, but soon turned his thoughts to escape. A fellow prisoner was an electrical engineer and noticed – much to his surprise – that the power supply to the camp could be easily short-circuited from inside a hut where prisoners worked. In this way, inmates could cut power to the perimeter fence lights at any time they chose. On the night of 30 August 1942, the camp lights were extinguished and over 30 escapees climbed over the double perimeter fence, using ladders and duckboards. By 15 October, Henry and two comrades had walked as far as Holland, travelling only by night in their British Army battledress, but they were cold, hungry and almost exhausted. Luckily, they were picked up by members of the Comet escape line and, despite several very tense near misses with the German authorities, made it through occupied Belgium and France and crossed the Pyrenees into neutral Spain. They got back to Britain via Gibraltar – the only three of the 30 escapees from Warburg not to be recaptured. Henry received a Military Cross from the King in March 1943 for his escape exploits before joining the Special Operations Executive, the organisation tasked with taking the fight to the enemy in the occupied countries. He volunteered for service on Operation Jedburgh – a plan that would see 300 elite soldiers parachuted behind enemy lines to aid the Allied advance. The training was on a “no holds barred” basis and emphasised that operating in enemy territory was a “kill or be killed” situation. Every man was issued with a cyanide capsule to bite into in the event of capture. Henry led a three-man team that was dropped into the French Ardennes in August 1944. They helped the French Resistance in several engagements with the enemy before meeting up with advancing US army units. For his efforts, he was awarded a Croix de Guerre with Palm by the French. In 1945, while on leave from the army in England, his car broke down and he was picked up by an Auxiliary Territorial Service vehicle in which HRH Princess Elizabeth was a passenger. He was taken for tea at Sandringham, where he renewed his acquaintance with her father, the King. Later, in 1952, Henry was to stand vigil by the King’s coffin in Westminster Hall in his Welsh Guards uniform. As the Allies’ victory started to look inevitable, in April 1945 Henry volunteered for the Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force (SAARF), a unit that would drop around 100 elite soldiers into Germany in the event of its collapse. Henry was pencilled in for a mission with intrepid SOE agent (and later noted travel writer) Paddy Leigh Fermor. In 1944, Paddy had kidnapped the German commandant of Crete, audaciously passing through over 20 enemy checkpoints in his official car, wearing the general’s cap and returning salutes. The target for Henry and Paddy was to be Colditz Castle and the plan was to persuade the Germans not to murder their VIP captives in a disintegrating Third Reich. The rapid advance of the Allied armies meant that in the end this particular mission was not necessary, though Henry did spend some time in May 1945 collecting captured SOE agents from prisons and camps around Germany WE ARE UACC REGISTERED DEALERS NUMBER RD209 NOTE! We have noticed a few sellers putting the letters "UACC" in their item titles but failing to provide either a dealer or member number. You should view this practise or anything similarly vague with the utmost caution, any reputable dealer will provide this information on their listings directly without having to be asked. We are UACC Registered Dealer RD209 We do NOT sell pre-printed signed items. Everything we sell is hand signed and authentic Visit our store!Buyautographs Shipping Flat items are packaged in board backed envelopes with 'Please Do Not Bend' printed to the front. Items larger than 8x12 inches are usually sent in a sturdy tube. We are very happy to combine postage for multiple purchases. About Us We are UACC Registered Dealer RD209. We continue to hold a large number of 'Private Signings' with Stars of TV & Film, Concorde Pilots, WWII Veterans, Celebrities and so on, in order to guarantee authenticity. _gsrx_vers_1634 (GS 9.6 (1634))
Price: 160 GBP
Location: Ashford, Kent
End Time: 2025-02-01T04:17:33.000Z
Shipping Cost: 18.79 GBP
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Return postage will be paid by: Buyer
Returns Accepted: Returns Accepted
After receiving the item, your buyer should cancel the purchase within: 30 days
Return policy details: Returns accepted within 14 days of purchase.
Country Of Manufacture: United Kingdom
