£415.00-1939-45 Star
-Africa Star
-War Medal (all unnamed as issued)
-Territorial Efficiency Medal George VI named 4344295 Pte. W. F. Johnson E. York's
-Royal Observer Corps Medal Elizabeth II named Leading Observer W.F. Johnson
William Franks Johnson was born on 28 February 1921 and enlisted with the East Yorkshire Regiment, being posted to the 5th Battalion. They were serving with the 50th Division in the Desert during the Battle of Gazala after which the British were forced back through Libya and into Egypt. They later managed to reorganise on the El Alamein line.
There the East Yorks went into action near Ruweisat Ridge towards the end of the Battle, when the two sides had been fighting for almost a week. Johnson was taken prisoner of war there on 25 July 1942, he was taken to Italy where he was held at Camp 53 at Macerata, Italy. Escaping on 11 August 1944 he managed to make it back to Allied lines and got away.
At the end of the War, he was still a member of the Territorial Army being awarded his Territorial Efficiency Medal in the Army Orders for April 1946. Joining the Observer Corps as Observer on 8 November 1952 while working as a Bus Driver, he was advanced Leading Observer on 1 January 1960. Johnson died in Northumberland during the winter of 1990; sold together with copied research.
An unusual 'escapers' campaign group of five awarded to Private W. F. Johnson, East Yorkshire Regiment later Leading Observer, Observer Corps, who was taken Prisoner of War in 1942 and successfully escaped from imprisonment in Italy.
Condition as shown in photographs
