He came under shell fire from the Nazis, and survived the Battle of the Bulge before taking part in the Allies’ victory parade in Berlin in 1945.
And now this battered 4ft bear has added to his remarkable Second World War history by fetching £4,000 at auction – 10 times the expected price.
The bear was gifted to British soldier Thomas Matthews by a grateful villager newly liberated from the Nazis in Holland after the D-Day landings in 1944.
The bear travelled in Thomas’s M10 tank destroyer as he fought the Nazis across Europe. The bear was in the Battle of the Bulge, proving a lucky charm for Thomas, who was shot twice in the leg, but with spent bullets, which he simply pulled out.
Thomas, who served in the 62nd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, used the bear as a pillow in the tank and sat the toy on his lap during the parade after the Nazis were defeated.
Thomas died in 1990, aged 74, and passed the bear to his son, also Thomas, who kept it tucked away in the loft at his home in Stafford for 40 years.
Auctioneers Hansons gave the bear an estimate of £400, but Kirsty Johnston, 59, of Barnet, North London, paid £4,000 after a bidding war.
She said: “I thought it would sell for more than its estimate thanks to its provenance.”
Thomas Matthews Jnr, 76, said: “I am thrilled. It’s an incredible result for an incredible bear.”
