final credits - ernest "smokey" smith
Ernest "Smokey" Smith was Canada's last living Victoria Cross recipient. With his passing there are only nine still alive in the Commonwealth who received the decoration for service in World War II (four medals have been awarded since). The Victoria Cross is the highest decoration that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces and it honours "gallantry in the face of the enemy." Ernest "Smokey" Smith died August 3, 2005 at the age of 91.
Smith is credited for single-handedly fighting off German tanks and dozens of troops on a road beside the Savio River in Italy on October 21, 1944. His lone shot at a lead Panther tank when it was less than 10 meters away disabled the 45-tonne vehicle, but ten German troops jumped off of it and charged Smith's three man unit. Smith killed four of the Nazi soldiers with a Tommy gun and the rest ran off. "Even Germans don't like to be shot," Smith later recalled. As two other tanks approached, he fired at the next in line, forcing it to turn away, causing the remaining vehicle to follow.
Injured in the skirmish was Private Jimmy Tennant. Smith helped Tennant to a nearby church where a medic station was set up, picking their way around dead Germans who lay strewn all over the road. After dropping Tennant off, Smith returned to hold his field position. The two remained friends back in Canada (Smith helped Tennant find a job with the Workers Compensation Board) until his mate's death from cancer a few years shy of their 60th reunion in 2004.
Smith earned the nickname "Smokey" in school because of his running ability. With a reputation as a sharp-witted troublemaker, he most likely had to often turn to flight to escape classmates who took exception to his verbal attacks. That independent spirit carried into his years of service. He was promoted to the rank of corporal nine times, and nine times he was busted back to private. That dubious record helped make Smith the only Canadian private to win the medal in the Second World War.
The news of Smith's Victoria Cross award reached him about seven weeks after the fight. Word of his fondness for Scotch preceded him, and military police confined him to a jail prior to his meeting with King George VI in London.
After the war, Smith worked for a couple of years in a photographic supply store before he rejoined the army to fight in the Korean War. Promoted to a supply sergeant, Smith later learned that holding a VC meant he no longer was allowed to see active combat. "Why didn't you tell me before I rejoined?" Smith was reported to have said.
In 1964, Smith retired with full pension at age 50. He became a newspaper photographer before starting "Smith Travel" in 1969 in the Vancouver area with his wife, Esther. The successful business closed in 1992 when Smith finally retired at age 82.
In recent years, Smith was pretty much confined to a wheelchair, which he called his staff car. In 2004, he returned to Italy for the unveiling of a plaque beneath the walls of an 800-year-old castle to commemorate the night of October 21-22, 1944. Asked for his thoughts on his return, he simply said, "I'm older."
Smith was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 1995. In 2000, he became the last living Canadian VC recipient. The Canadian Pacific Railway dedicated a railcar in his honour in 2003. Smith's ashes were placed in the foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa to lie in state, making him only the ninth person to be accorded this honour.
Smith was one of 94 Canadians awarded the VC since the first was created in 1856 after the Crimean War. The Victoria Cross is a medallion on a dark red ribbon, made from the bronze of Russian cannons captured at Sebastopol during the last great battle of the Crimean war in 1854-55.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Archives holds two broadcast clips featuring Smith's story. A January, 1956 radio interview hears Smith recalling the 1944 event for which he is honoured in his own words. An October, 2004 report carried on CBC's National television news covers Smith's return to Italy.