Gunner Ernest Herstell was reported wounded and missing 29 May 1943 during operations with the 2nd SAS at Pantelleria, an island between Sicily and Tunisia (Operation Snapdragon). He was later presumed to have died of wounds and has no known grave. Son of Frank and Florence Herstell; husband of Florence Herstell, of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester whom he married early 1942.

In 1939 Ernest Maxwell Herstell was a Police Constable, single, and residing at 37 Cotham Vale, Bristol. He married Florence Irving in January 1942. Later that year he volunteered for the Commandos and was posted to the 3rd Police Intake at the Commando Depot (Commando Basic Training Centre), Achnacarry.

After completing his training that December Herstell was nominally transferred to the Royal Artillery having been posted to No.62 Commando, the cover name for the Special Operations Executive's Small Scale Raiding Force. At the time this unit was being reorganised, Herstell and a significant number of its men disembarked in North Africa in late February 1943. They subsequently formed the foundation on which 2nd Special Air Service was raised on 13 May 1943.

Herstell was posted missing in action during Operation Snapdragon, a recce of the strategically important island of Pantelleria that lies in the narrows between Sicily and Tunisia. Possession of its airfield was judged essential for the forthcoming assault on Sicily. A ten man team led by Major Geoffrey Appleyard DSO, MC*, was therefore inserted by rubber dinghies launched from HM Submarine Unshaken on the night of 28/29 May 1943.
The men were to take a prisoner and ascertain the enemies' alertness. Having scaled a sea cliff they took cover as an Italian patrol passed. Deciding to snatch a lone sentry a suitable candidate was identified and tackled to the ground. However his muffled cries alerted a second sentry who rushed to the scene. Herstell, alert to this new threat, ran forward to silence him despite being only armed with a rubber cosh. He was shot and with more of the enemy arriving was left by the raiding party that was forced to withdraw down the cliff face.