Peter Smith 75 NZ Sqn

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Nocturna mors
Flight Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
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Peter Smith 75 NZ Sqn

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Peter Smith

Published on 10 April 2013

Campbell Thomas


An Appreciation

PETER Smith, who has died aged 88, was one of the last survivors of the Glen Cinema disaster, which claimed the lives of more than 70 children in Paisley in 1929. He went on to join the RAF in the Second World War, took part in the famous raid on the bridges over the River Kwai and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery.

He was just six when a canister of film started smouldering during a children's matinee at Paisley's Glen Cinema on Hogmanay, 1929. Thick smoke filled the auditorium and panicking boys and girls rushed towards the escape door, which was padlocked shut.

He kicked out a toilet window and jumped into the arms of a policeman before running home with a badly gashed leg. His father wrapped him in a blanket and took him to hospital, where he saw the bodies of children laid out in a corridor. The sight gave him nightmares for the rest of his life. An inquiry into the tragedy resulted in improved safety regulations for cinemas, including more emergency exits and limited seating capacity.

He was born in Paisley, the son of an engineer. He went to Abercorn School and sang in the Paisley Abbey choir. He became an apprentice engineer with his father's employer, Babcock & Wilcox of Renfrew, and joined the Home Guard.

He attended the Woodside First Aid Post in Paisley after it received a direct hit from a German parachute bomb on May 6, 1941, killing 98 doctors, nurses, first aiders, drivers, messengers and ambulance workers. Only once was he able to discuss his experiences there.

He enlisted in the RAF, trained as an air gunner and was posted to 75 (NZ) Squadron at Mapel in Cambridgeshire. Flying in a Short Stirling, he took part in Operation Hydra, the raid on the V-weapon site at Peenemunde, and attacks on U-boat pens.

He was transferred to South East Asia Command and 356 Squadron in India, equipped with US-supplied B-24 Liberators. Being small in stature he elected to fly as ball gunner, but had to hang his parachute outside the turret and could only get out with the help of the waist gunner/wireless operator.

After one raid he trapped his thumb in the breech of his .50 calibre Browning machine gun and lost a lot of blood. He survived landing with the turret down, although it took three hours to free him. On another mission, a shell struck his aircraft's extra fuel tank but did not explode. He remembered: "Fuel was gushing out and entering the ball turret which I occupied. My skipper was not too keen on my evacuation but eventually I was overcome by fumes and had to be hauled back into the rear of the aircraft."

On June 24, 1945, he took part in the raid on the two bridges carrying the Burma railway over the River Kwai, immortalised in the 1957 film starring Jack Hawkins and Alec Guinness. Some 13,000 Allied prisoners of war and up to 100,000 civilians died building the railway, and breaching this vital Japanese supply line was essential.

He wrote later: "Having been briefed on the existence and exact location of POW camps close to the River Kwai, our skipper decided to start the bombing run at right angles across the river, thereby taking no chances of hitting POW accommodation. Sadly, it was learned later that some, including American aircraft, had flown downriver, causing casualties among the unfortunate prisoners. We were successful in making good strikes on the bridge on that occasion and avoided POW casualties."

His squadron took part in the last bombing raid of the war, but his finest hour came when a Free French Mosquito crash-landed on the runway at RAF Mauripur near Karachi.

He sprinted to the blazing wreck, freed the pilot and went back to recover the co-pilot, who was dead. His station commander threatened to discipline him for being in the area without permission, but the commander of the French squadron intervened, saying he was being awarded the Croix de Guerre.

After the war, he completed his engineering apprenticeship and went on to work at Stoddard's carpet factory at Elderslie, McAlpine Plumbing in Hillington and Grant's Whisky in Paisley. He lived in Paisley and was a proud member of the Aircrew Association and the Royal Air Forces Association.

Shortly before his death, his old squadron was back in the news when the remains of his comrades who flew Liberator KL654 were buried with full military honours, after lying neglected at a jungle crash site since 1945.

The actual Liberator he flew in survives at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, where he enjoyed the privilege of being allowed to climb on board, unlike members of the public.

His wife Catherine died before him. He is survived by sons Douglas and Gordon, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/co ... 9dd5ca69bb

Tom
"Rule Britannia two tanners make a bob,three make eighten pence and four two bob"!
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