[1] He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1937 aged 18, as an Aircraftman 2nd class, to train for aircrew as a wireless operator/air gunner and by 1939 was serving with No.

[4] Tasked to bomb German troop convoys as they advanced south-west of Luxemburg, four aircraft from the squadron took off at 17:00 hours GMT from Rheims, Champagne.

On 17 April 1941, Ward was with a working party of twenty prisoners supervised by two German soldiers when he hid, changed into civilian clothes and escaped.

From 1941 to 1945 Ward was the communications liaison between the British government and the Home Army; he also worked as a war correspondent for The Times of London, including over two years in occupied Warsaw.

[10][11][12] He joined the Polish Resistance in August 1944 when the Warsaw Uprising broke out and was recruited by Stefan and Zofia Korbonski to prepare English dispatches that were transmitted to London via Morse Code.

[13] Ward participated in the clandestine activities of the Polish resistance movement's Błyskawica ("Lighting") radio station during the uprising, airing the English-language broadcasts, as well as contributing more than 100 reports.

[16] Despite the risk of execution if he was captured Ward wore the red and white armband and the Polish cap eagle of the Home Army.

He was wounded in action in the thigh by mortar shrapnel; the Polish force decorated him with the Cross of Valour for his bravery,[17][18][19] awarded personally by General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski.

[20] Ward fought alongside the Polish resistance after the uprising until the end of the war and continued to be promoted by the Royal Air Force on a regular basis achieving the rank of Warrant Officer.

Ward left Warsaw heading for Częstochowa and Kielce but his train was stopped by German police and posing as a Pole he was sent back to Czestochowa labour concentration camp.

Ward escaped from Czestochowa with help from a German guard bribed with US dollars and joined the 7th Polish Partisan Division serving with them until December 1944.

He was ordered not to move but on 1 February 1945 with Mrs Gordzialowski he travelled to Kielce where he sent a radio message to London and then continued on to Podkowa Leśna where he contacted General Leopold Okulicki "Kobra" (Cobra), then head of the Home Army.