Military service of Ian Smith
| Ian Smith | |
|---|---|
Smith, photographed c. 1943
|
|
| Nickname(s) | "Smithy" |
| Born |
8 April 1919 Selukwe, Southern Rhodesia |
| Died | 20 November 2007 (aged 88) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Allegiance | |
| Service/branch | Royal Air Force |
| Years of service | 1941–45 |
| Rank | Flight lieutenant |
| Service number | 80463 |
| Unit |
|
| Battles/wars | Second World War |
| Other work | Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979; declared independence in 1965 |
The future Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, interrupting his studies at Rhodes University in South Africa to join up in 1941. Following a year's pilot instruction in Southern Rhodesia under the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was posted to No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron, then stationed in the Middle East, in late 1942. Smith received six weeks' operational training in the Levant, then entered active service as a pilot officer in Iran and Iraq. No. 237 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 serious injuries, including facial disfigurements and a broken jaw. Following reconstructive plastic surgery to his face, other operations and 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 anti-aircraft fire. 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.
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