Last Canadian Victoria Cross winner dies.Although his comrades called him "a soldier's soldier,'' Smith's relationship with the army was stormy. He built a reputation as an independent-minded man suspicious of authorities. They made him a corporal nine times and busted him back to private nine times. That was his rank when he was awarded his VC, the only Canadian private to win the medal in the Second World War
Irreverant, sharp-witted and something of a trouble-maker, Smoky Smith and his deeds the night of Oct. 21-22, 1944, are the stuff of legend.
Already wounded once in Sicily, he had returned to cross the Savio River with his Seaforth Highlanders, the spearhead of an attack aimed at establishing a bridgehead in the push to liberate Cesena and ultimately break through the Germans' Gothic Line. The rains were so heavy the river rose two metres in five hours. The banks were too soft for tanks or anti-tank guns to cross in support of the rifle companies. As the right forward company consolidated its objective, the Germans counter-attacked with three Panther tanks, two self-propelled guns and about 30 infantry.
Then 30, Smith led his three-man anti-tank group across an open field under heavy fire. Leaving an anti-tank weapon with one of his men, he led Pte. Jimmy Tennant across the road for another. "We got hit with grenades,'' Smith recalled. "We got grenades thrown all over us. I don't know how I didn't get hit. He (Tennant) got hit in the shoulder and arm. "So I said: `Get in that ditch and stay there. Don't move.' So we stayed right there and I never got a mark.''
"We had tried to get a German bazooka, which we figured was twice the weapon we had,'' he said. "But they wouldn't let us have it. You know why? It wasn't British.''
The pair were no sooner into a ditch when a Panther came toward them, firing all the way. Smith waited until the 45-tonne vehicle was less than 10 metres away before he jumped out from his cover, laid down and fired back. He scored a direct hit, disabling the tank. "I hit it in the side or the track,'' said Smith. "A tank is pretty hard to hit. Sometimes the round would just bounce off it.
Immediately, 10 German Panzergrenadier troops jumped off and charged him. "I killed four of them with my tommy gun. That scared them off. "They were up close -- about 10 feet or so.''
Another tank opened fire. More enemy began closing on Smith's position. He fired another round at an approaching tank. It turned away. As each German neared him, Smith fired at them.
The rest eventually turned and withdrew "in disorder,'' the citation said. "Even Germans don't like to be shot,'' Smith said.
From a distance, a tank continued firing. Smith helped a badly bleeding Tennant up and the two of them made their way back across the road to a church, where Smith left his buddy in the care of some medics.
Smith heard he'd won the Victoria Cross about seven weeks after the fight. His reputation as a party animal preceded him. Military police were sent to take him to the ceremony with King George VI in London.
After the war, Smith worked a couple of years before he rejoined the army to go and fight in the Korean War.
"After I got in the army, they wouldn't let me go. They said: `You got a VC, you're not allowed to fight any more.' I said: `Why didn't you tell me before I rejoined?'''
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