Flight Lieutenant Ian Smith Future Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith served in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War (1939–45), interrupting his studies at Rhodes University in South Africa to join up in 1941. Following a years pilot instruction in Rhodesia under the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was posted to No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron, then stationed in the Middle East, in 1942. Late in 1942, after six weeks operational training in the Levant, Smith entered active service as a pilot officer with No. 237 Squadron in Iran and Iraq. The squadron, which had operated in the Western Desert from 1941 to early 1942, returned to that front in March 1943. Smith flew in the Western Desert until October that year, when a crash during a night takeoff resulted in a number of serious injuries, including facial disfigurements and a broken jaw. Following several operations, including reconstructive plastic surgery to his face, and after five months convalescence, Smith rejoined No. 237 Squadron in Corsica in May 1944. While there, he attained his highest rank, flight lieutenant. In late June 1944, during a strafing attack on a railway yard in the Po Valley in northern Italy, Smith was shot down by flak. Parachuting from his aircraft, he landed without serious injury in the Ligurian Alps, in an area that was behind German lines, but largely under the control of anti-German Italian partisans. Smith spent three months working with the local resistance movement before trekking westwards, across the Maritime Alps, with three other Allied personnel, hoping to join up with the Allied forces that had just invaded southern France. After 23 days hiking, he and his companions were recovered by American troops and repatriated. Smith was briefly stationed in Britain before he was posted to No. 130 (Punjab) Squadron in western Germany in April 1945. He flew combat missions there until Germany surrendered in May. He remained with No. 130 Squadron for the rest of his service, and returned home at the end of 1945. After completing his studies at Rhodes, he was elected Member of Parliament for his birthplace, Selukwe, in 1948. Becoming Prime Minister in 1964 amid his countrys dispute with Britain regarding the terms for full independence, he was influenced as a politician by his wartime experiences; Rhodesias military record on the mother countrys behalf became a fundamental part of his sense of betrayal by post-war British governments, which partly motivated his administrations Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. His status as a Second World War RAF veteran thereafter helped him win support, both domestically and internationally.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 21:07:58 +0000
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