Ron Jewell - Telegraph He found support nearby in R Patrol, whose commanding officer cycled back with the American to confirm to the Germans that the attack had been cancelled. The reality was that the Germans were 1,100 strong while R Patrol had six Jeeps of three men each. When R Patrol entered the town, surrounded, as Jewell recalled, by armed Germans, they drove to a hotel where they were wined and dined by their capitulating hosts. The unconditional surrender also secured two 88mm field gun batteries, one coastal defence gun battery, 120 heavy machine guns, and three months" supplies. By then PPA had helped to liberate Ravenna, an ancient city renowned for its treasures of Byzantine art. In nearby Classe, gunners from the Eighth Army were convinced that the Germans were using the bell tower of the magnificent Basilica di Sant'Apollinare as an artillery observation post. By establishing that they were not, Popski was able to prevent its destruction. After a dawn raid by forces under the control of a young partisan code-named Bulow, PPA stormed in from Ravenna's east, while conventional Allied forces attacked from the south and west. Ron Jewell's R Patrol then immediately pushed north to make contact with the retreating Germans. Jewell's war ended in Tarvisio, Austria, where R Patrol found itself defending its former enemies following a request from a Luftwaffe hospital, which had both Allied and Axis patients, for protection against Tito's partisans, who were seeking a foothold in the province of Carinthia. R Patrol obliged, forming a defensive perimeter until the arrival of main Allied forces. Richard Ronald Jewell was born in Swansea on January 24 1923. After leaving school he worked as a Government clerk. He lied about his age to join the Army in 1940. After the war he served briefly as a driver to Major Jean Caneri, who had taken the German surrender at Chioggia, while they handled the repatriation of Soviet PoWs. Demobilised later in 1945, he moved to London, where he joined the Meteorological Office. Unfortunately, his duties required him to work on weather boats, but he suffered from terrible seasickness and was forced to resign. He subsequently returned to Swansea, where he worked in a steel factory until his retirement in 1995. A decade later Jewell, then aged 82, was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the mayor for his part in the liberation of the city. Ron Jewell married, in 1959, Katherine Morse, known as Kitty. She survives him with their three children. Ron Jewell, born January 24 1923, died on April 7 2012