Attached to 8th Battalion, the Durham Light Infantry in North Africa in May 1942, in June a patrol containing Lewis encountered a line of enemy positions. A small reconnaissance force was repelled, but the patrol leader, Captain Ian English, managed to contact his superior, Major Clarke, and inform him of the situation. Clarke decided to send in a force of armoured cars filled with soldiers from the Durham Light Infantry at 9:15am, with machine gun, mortar and artillery units to support the attack with a barrage starting at 9:14 and finishing at 9:16. The artillery assault started a minute late, and Lewis misinterpreted Clarke's orders to halt as an order to attack immediately. The force charged towards the Italian lines while dodging their own shells, and after Lewis's armoured car ran over the only operational Italian anti-tank gun the enemy force surrendered; 20 officers and 210 other soldiers in total, along with a large quantity of machine guns, anti-tank guns and other equipment; the British lost one man in the attack. Lewis received an immediate award of the Military Cross, gazetted on 24 September 1942, while his sergeant who had killed the anti-tank gunners was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. In 1942 he commanded a company in Operation Supercharge during the Second Battle of El Alamein; he was injured in combat, and the only officer from his unit to survive. He was again wounded in March 1943 when, on the Mareth Line, an officer nearby stepped on a mine.
Lewis retired in 1946 with the rank of acting Major and returned to his job at Everybody's, and worked as a motor racing correspondent for The Observer between 1954 and 1960. In 1949, he published his first book, co-authored with Major I R English MC, the original full title of which was 8th Battalion The Durham Light Infantry 1939–45 A History Compiled by Major P J Lewis MC, assisted by Major I R English MC from official records and personal accounts contributed by members of the Battalion.. The book has since been reprinted several times with the new title Into Battle with the Durhams. Later books include: Alf Francis, Racing Mechanic in 1957, Dicing with Death in 1961, Motor Racing through the Fifties in 1992 and The Price of Freedom in 2001. In 1953 Lewis, with other of the British Officers whose lives were saved by Don Mario Rocchi, gave a significant support to the expansion of “Città dei Ragazzi” in Modena, that was founded by Don Rocchi to help and to train children of poor families. In 1956 Lewis introduced the Charity International Help for Children to Don Mario Rocchi to organize summer holidays of his Italian children to live in English foster families. He died on 12 December 2008.
