Digby Smith
| Digby Smith, aka Otto von Pivka | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Digby George Smith 1 January 1935 Aldershot, Hampshire |
| Nationality | British |
| Education |
|
| Occupation | Military Historian |
| Children | 3 children, step children |
| Parent(s) | George Frederick Smith and Catherine Mary |
Digby Smith is a British military historian. The son of a British career soldier, he was born in Hampshire, England, but spent several years in India and Pakistan as a child and youth. As a "boy soldier," he entered training in the British Army at the age of 16. He was later commissioned in the Royal Corps of Signals, and held several postings with the British Army of the Rhine.
After a career in the British Army Signal Corps, he retired and with a friend started a company selling body armour, followed by several years working in the telecommunications industry. After his second retirement, he lived for a while in Hanau, Germany, but has moved back to Britain.
Originally writing under the pen name, Otto von Pivka, since his retirement from the military he has written another dozen books, venturing into narrative history with his 1813: Leipzig : Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations in 2001 and Charge!: Great Cavalry Charges of the Napoleonic Wars in 2003. His Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book: Actions and Losses in Personnel, Colours, Standards and Artillery, 1792–1815 (1998) is considered a standard for French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War historians, re-enactors, and hobbyists.
Smith was born 15 January 1935, at the Louise Margaret Military Hospital in Aldershot, Hampshire. His father, George Frederick Smith, was a corporal in the 2nd Infantry Division Signals regiment. In 1937, he posted to India in the 9th Infantry Division (India) Signals Regiment on the Afghan border in Quetta, Baluchistan. The 1935 Quetta earthquake devastated the area, and the family lived in a tent. At the outbreak of war in 1939, his father was commissioned and posted to Malaya, where, in 1941, he took part in the fighting near Kota Baru. Eventually he was captured at Singapore, and was one of the 60,000 Allied POWs who built the Burma-Siam railway.
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