Military service of Ian Smith

The future Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith served in the British 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 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 a number of 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 flak. 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.

Smith was briefly stationed in Britain before he was posted to No. 130 (Punjab) Squadron in western Germany in April 1945. He flew combat missions there until Germany surrendered in May. He remained with No. 130 Squadron for the rest of his service, and returned home at the end of 1945. After completing his studies at Rhodes, he was elected Member of Parliament for his birthplace, Selukwe, in 1948. Becoming Prime Minister in 1964 amid his country's dispute with Britain regarding the terms for independence, he was influenced as a politician by his wartime experiences. Rhodesia's military record on the mother country's behalf became central to his sense of betrayal by post-war British governments, which partly motivated his administration's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. His status as a Second World War RAF veteran thereafter helped him win support, both domestically and internationally.

Background

Ian Smith was born in 1919, the son of British settlers in Selukwe, Southern Rhodesia.^{[n 1]} He attended Chaplin School in Gwelo, where he was head prefect, recipient of the Victor Ludorum in athletics, captain of the school teams in cricket, rugby and tennis, and successful academically. After graduating in 1937, he attended Rhodes University College, in Grahamstown, South Africa, which was often attended by Rhodesian students, partly because Rhodesia then had no university of its own. Enrolling at the start of 1938, Smith read for a Bachelor of Commerce degree.^[6] He was about halfway through his course when the Second World War broke out in September 1939.^{[n 2]}

Enlisting and training in Rhodesia

Harvards flown by Royal Air Force trainee pilots in Southern Rhodesia, 1943

Smith was fascinated by the idea of being a fighter pilot, and particularly excited by the prospect of flying a Spitfire.^[8] He wanted to leave Rhodes immediately to join the Southern Rhodesian Air Force, but did not because military recruiters in the colony had been told not to accept university students until after they graduated. As in the First World War, white Rhodesians in general were very keen to enlist; because it was feared that the absence of these men might adversely affect the strategically important mines, manpower controls were introduced to keep certain whites out of the military and in their civilian occupations.^[9] One of Southern Rhodesia's main contributions to the Allied war effort proved to be its participation, from 1940, in the Empire Air Training Scheme.^{[n 3]} The Southern Rhodesian Air Force was absorbed into the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in April 1940, becoming No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF.^[11] Two more RAF squadrons, No. 44 and No. 266, were subsequently also designated "Rhodesian" formations.^[12]

Remaining at Rhodes during the 1940 academic year, Smith secretly made plans to leave for military service in spite of his instructions to finish studying. In June 1940, during the mid-year break from studies, he quietly travelled to the Southern Rhodesian capital, Salisbury, to tell the colony's director of manpower, William Addison, that he wanted to join the air force; to avoid being barred from enlistment, Smith did not mention his university attendance, and gave his Selukwe address.^[9] During his Christmas vacation at the end of 1940, Smith went to Salisbury again, and was successful in a second interview with an air force official and a physical examination. Early in 1941, having received his pilot course call-up papers, Smith underwent a final interview, during which it emerged that he was a university student; the interviewer briefly demurred, but accepted Smith when he insisted that he wanted to sign up.^[8]

In September 1941 Smith formally enlisted in the Royal Air Force.^[13] He began his instruction with Initial Training Wing in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia's second city, and after six weeks there transferred to Elementary Flying Training School at Guinea Fowl, just outside Gwelo.^[14] The majority of the men he trained alongside were Australians, and many others were British. Smith was glad to find himself in a course that would ultimately lead to flying fighters as opposed to bombers—at Guinea Fowl, he learned to pilot Tiger Moths, then Harvards—and was also pleased to have been posted only a half-hour car ride from Selukwe. Late in the course he was picked out to undergo instruction as an officer cadet, which meant he was transferred to Thornhill, another Gwelo airbase.^[15] He passed out in September 1942 with the rank of pilot officer;^[3] his training in Southern Rhodesia had taken a year in all.^[15]

Service

Middle East and North Africa

Smith with No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron, c. 1943

Smith hoped to be posted to Britain at the end of his training,^[14] and was initially told that this was going to happen, but he was ultimately sent to the Middle East.^[16] He was despatched to Idku, a small RAF base near Cairo, in late 1942,^[13] from where he was posted to an operational training unit based at Baalbek, in Lebanon. He spent six weeks there, flying over much of the Levant in a Hawker Hurricane fighter, before being posted to No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron to begin active service, again piloting Hurricanes. The squadron was stationed near the Iranian capital of Tehran when Smith joined it, but it almost immediately transferred to Kirkuk, in Iraq, to help guard the oil wells and pipelines there.^[17] In March 1943, it was again committed to the Western Desert Campaign in North Africa, having previously served there during 1941–1942,^[11] and Smith proceeded to serve on this front as a Hurricane pilot.^[17] He was promoted to flying officer on 25 March 1943.^[18]

On 4 October 1943, Smith took off from Idku at dawn in a Hurricane Mk IIC to escort a shipping convoy.^[13] Light was extremely poor, and Smith's throttle malfunctioned;^[19] he failed to take off quickly enough to clear a blast wall at the end of the runway. The undercarriage of the aircraft scraped against some sandbags on the wall, causing Smith to lose control of the plane and crash.^[13] The shoulder straps on his harness, built to withstand stress of up to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb), snapped,^[19] and his face was smashed against the Hurricane's gyrosight. Smith suffered serious facial injuries, and broke his jaw, a leg and a shoulder.^[17] Doctors thought at first that his back had also been broken, but it had actually only been buckled.^[14]

A team of doctors and surgeons at the Fifteenth Scottish Hospital in Cairo worked extensively on Smith, putting his jaw back together with a complicated assembly of bandage, plaster, nuts, bolts and wire, and rebuilt his face through skin grafts and other plastic surgery.^[20] In March 1944, after about five months' convalescence, he was passed fit for flying.^[14] He turned down the offer of a posting home to Southern Rhodesia as an instructor and, after a refresher course in Egypt,^[20][21] travelled to Corsica to rejoin No. 237 Squadron, which was by now flying Spitfire Mk IXs.^[21]

Italy

A Spitfire Mk IX, as flown by Smith in Italy during 1944

Smith reported for duty with No. 237 Squadron in Corsica on 10 May 1944, and resumed operational flying two days later.^[13] Soon after, he was promoted in the field to flight lieutenant.^{[n 4]} At this time the unit was attached to an American bomber group, and assigned to cover it during attacks on northern Italian cities such as Genoa. The fighters also embarked on strafing raids into the Po Valley, attacking railway traffic and heavy vehicles.^[20] Smith flew ten sorties with the squadron over the next month, and during the last of these, on 22 June,^[13] led a strafing raid against a large railway yard. Having destroyed a number of engines and fuel tanks, Smith went back for a second run, and his aircraft was hit by flak. He shouted over the radio to the other pilots, telling them not to attempt a second pass on the railway yard, and turned towards the coast, hoping to ditch in the sea.^[23] Smith's wingman, Alan Douglas, then told him by radio first that black smoke was emanating from the aircraft, then that the engine was ablaze.^[24] Realising his fighter would explode if the fire reached the fuel tanks, Smith decided to bail out. He had never parachuted before, but had been often been through relevant drills. He turned his Spitfire upside down, thrust the stick forward, released the cockpit's canopy, fell out of the plane and opened his parachute. He landed without serious injuries on the side of a mountain.^[25]

According to Smith's account, he initially hid in a large bush, but soon decided this was too obvious, and so moved to a smaller piece of foliage. A German patrol came to the area after about an hour, examined the bush in which Smith had originally hidden, and attacked it with bursts of automatic gunfire before leaving. "Somebody was keeping an eye on me when I thought I'd better get out of that bush ..." he later told biographer Phillippa Berlyn.^[25] Luckily for Smith, the area in which he had landed was predominantly anti-German, and largely under the control of pro-Allied Italian partisans; one of these saw the Rhodesian's descent and retrieved his parachute to stop the Germans from finding it.^[25] Smith hid for a while longer before coming out to greet a boy of about 12 who had passed by his hiding place with some livestock. The boy, whose name was Leo, knew no English; using sign language, he told Smith to sit and wait, then went off and shortly returned with his elder brother, Lorenzo.^[26] Again using sign language, Lorenzo proposed that Smith come to their home to eat. The Rhodesian gratefully accepted. The boys' parents, peasant farmers named Zunino, happily took Smith in, but decided it was too risky to keep him at the house so soon after the crash, and so hid him in a cave on the mountain. The next day, the Germans came to the Zunino house, looking for Smith. After about a week, the danger had subsided, and the Zuninos gave Smith a room in the house.^[27]

Smith worked on the Zuninos' farm and began rigorously studying the Italian language, which he realised he would need to learn if he was to travel through enemy territory to the Allied lines.^[28] After a month, the local partisan commander, Antonio Bozzano (nicknamed "Barbetta" because of his beard), came to the house to meet him, and asked him to join his ranks. Smith said he would more than happy to, and went with Barbetta to his headquarters, about 10 miles (16 km) away in a village called Piancastagna. When Barbetta asked the Rhodesian his rank, Smith, deciding it would be too complicated to explain the air force ranks, said he was a captain. "Oh well," Barbetta replied, tapping the Rhodesian on the shoulder; "you are now a major. I make you a major."^[29] It quickly became clear to Smith that Barbetta had given him this "promotion" in the hope of elevating his own reputation in the resistance movement—"none of the other regiments in the area could boast an Inglesi pilote and a majore to boot", he explained in his memoirs.^[30] The pilot got on well with Barbetta, and took part in his partisans' sabotage operations for about three months during late 1944. Meanwhile, he became proficient in Italian.^[29] After the Germans pulled out of their local garrison at Sassello in October 1944, Smith told Barbetta that he was going to attempt to return to the Allied lines.^[31] The partisans tried to talk him out of it, telling him it was too risky, but when Smith insisted, they gave him letters to take with him, endorsing him to other Italian partisan groups he might encounter on his way. A British Army corporal known to Smith as "Bill", who had been hiding in a nearby village, asked if he could come as well, and the Rhodesian agreed.^[32]

Sassello

Downed behind German lines in northern Italy, near Sassello, Smith spent three months fighting with local partisans, then headed west, hoping to meet Allied troops in southern France.

Smith resolved to head west, across the Ligurian Alps, towards southern France, which he knew had just been invaded by Allied troops, principally Americans, Free French and British. He and Bill were assisted along the way by Italian partisan groups and other friendly locals. After ten days on the road, three other Allied personnel—a Frenchman, an Austrian and a Pole—joined the trek, having met Smith and Bill at a partisan camp. The lingua franca of the group having changed to Italian, the five men hiked to the border, where they were taken in by an old farmer, Jean Batiste Chambrin, who gave them instructions on how to pass the German sentries guarding the border with France. The soldiers decided that because it would be too risky to try to cross all together, Smith and Bill would go first, with the Frenchman, Austrian and Pole following the next day.^[33]

Chambrin did not speak English, and so summoned his brother, an anglophone hotelier from across the border, to ascertain that Smith and Bill were really British, and not Germans testing his sympathies.^{[n 5]} At Bill's suggestion, Smith produced his RAF rank insignia as proof of his identity.^[33] Smith and Bill duly made their way to the border crossing, guided by Chambrin, who told them that his brother would meet them on the other side of the border. There was only one way over: a bridge, manned by German sentries, who occasionally stopped people for interrogation. The pilot observed the checkpoint for a while from behind cover, and noticed that pedestrians crossing alone or in pairs were rarely stopped, while larger groups generally were. Smith decided that it might be possible for them to simply walk across, and told Bill to "just look straight ahead and walk quietly on".^[34] Fortunately for them, they were not challenged, and they met up with Chambrin's brother a few miles away. The Austrian and Frenchman joined them the next day; the Polish soldier, who had appeared to Smith to be underage, had lost his nerve on seeing the Germans and had gone back.^[34]

They had now crossed the border into France, but there was still the matter of finding friendly troops. They decided that to do so without being discovered they would have to bypass the German positions by crossing the Maritime Alps. They found a local guide, and crossed the mountains, doing so over the course of two days. They were without the proper equipment and clothing for mountaineering. Shivering in the snow during the night, Smith took off his shoes, and found in the morning that they had frozen and that he could not put them on. He continued in his socks, which soon wore through, forcing him to finish the journey walking barefoot on the ice and snow.^[35] As they made their way downhill, they saw a group of soldiers in American uniforms. It had been 23 days since Smith and Bill set off from Piancastagna. They called to the soldiers and, once the Americans had been satisfied that they were who they claimed, Smith and his comrades were taken to a local base camp, where they were split up and sent back to their respective forces. The Americans took Smith to Marseille, from where he was flown to the RAF transit camp at Naples. On arriving in late November 1944, Smith sent a brief telegram home to Selukwe: "Alive and well. Love to you all—Ian."^[35]

Late war and demobilisation

It was well known to British servicemen that spending three months or more missing behind enemy lines resulted in an automatic posting back home, which Smith did not want; he was therefore wary as he entered his interview at the Naples transit base. When passage back to Rhodesia via Egypt was offered, Smith successfully requested permission to go to Britain instead, saying that he had many relatives there and considered it a second home. He thereupon travelled to England, where he was posted to a six-week refresher course in Shropshire, flying Spitfires.^[36] Smith performed very strongly in the exercises and, at his own request, was posted back to active service after only three weeks in the course.^[35] He was attached to No. 130 (Punjab) Squadron, part of No. 125 Wing, which was commanded by Group Captain (later Air Vice Marshal) Johnnie Johnson, one of the most successful RAF flying aces of the war.^[36] Reporting for duty with No. 130 Squadron at Celle, in western Germany, on 23 April 1945,^[13] he flew combat missions there, "[having] a little bit of fun shooting up odd things", he recalled,^[37] until the European war ended on 7 May with Germany's surrender.^[37]

Smith remained with No. 130 Squadron for the rest of his service, flying with it to Copenhagen, and then, via Britain, to Norway.^{[n 6]} The Rhodesian spent around five months in Norway as part of the post-war occupation forces, but did not learn Norwegian, later telling Berlyn that it seemed much harder to him than Italian, "and they all spoke English, you see".^[37] After No. 130 Squadron returned to Britain in November 1945, Smith was demobilised and sent home. He was met at RAF Kumalo in Bulawayo by his family, with whom he drove back to Selukwe.^[38]

War wounds

The plastic surgery used to reconstruct Smith's face following his crash in the Western Desert in 1943 left his face somewhat lopsided, with partial paralysis.^[40] In her 1978 biography of Smith, Berlyn writes that the grafted skin on his face "almost hides the injuries even today, though it has left him with a slightly blank expression".^[20] This was often commented on by observers, and when Smith died in 2007, it was prominent in many of his obituaries. "It was Ian Smith's war-damaged left eye that drew people's attention first," began the report printed in the London Times: "wide open, heavy-lidded and impassive from experimental plastic surgery, it hinted at a dull, characterless nature. The other was narrow, slanting and slightly hooded. Being watched by it was an uncomfortable experience. Each eye could have belonged to a different person."^[41] The Daily Telegraph took a similar line, reporting that the operation to reconstruct Smith's face had "left him with a somewhat menacing stare".^[42]

Smith's injuries also made him permanently unable to sit for long periods without pain, so when he attended conferences as a politician, he would briefly rise from his seat from time to time. During his talks with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson aboard HMS Tiger in 1966, Smith regularly got up and looked out of a porthole; the British incorrectly interpreted this as Smith feeling intimidated by Wilson, or seasick.^[43]

Influence on political career

Smith in 1975, as Prime Minister, wearing his RAF tie

Smith completed his studies at Rhodes during 1946, and entered politics in 1948, when he successfully contested the Selukwe seat on behalf of the Liberal Party, becoming his home town's Member of Parliament at the age of 29.^{[44][n 7]} He rose through the political ranks with the United Federal Party during the 1950s,^[46] and in 1962 helped to form the Rhodesian Front, a right-wing party whose avowed goal was full independence from Britain without an immediate transfer to black majority rule. He became Deputy Prime Minister in December that year when the new party, led by Winston Field, surprised most observers by winning that month's election.^[47] After the Cabinet forced Field to resign in April 1964, following his failure to gain independence from Britain, they chose Smith as the new Prime Minister.^[48]

Smith, Southern Rhodesia's first native-born head of government,^[48] was strongly influenced as premier by his wartime experiences.^[42] Southern Rhodesia's military contributions during the two World Wars, the Malayan Emergency and other conflicts, combined with memories of his own travails for Britain with the Royal Air Force—"undoubtedly the central experience of his life", R W Johnson wrote^[49]—caused Smith to feel profoundly betrayed when the British government proved one of his main adversaries as Prime Minister.^{[42][n 8]} The UK government's objection to continued white minority rule, based on moral and geopolitical factors, clashed with Smith's refusal to establish a set timetable for the progressive introduction of majority rule in Southern Rhodesia.^[51] After talks repeatedly broke down, Smith's government unilaterally declared independence on 11 November 1965.^[52] In 1970, following the results of a referendum, he declared Rhodesia a republic.^{[n 9]} He argued that Britain was to blame for all of this—"Rhodesia did not want to seize independence from Britain. It was forced upon us," he said.^[54]

For many in Britain during this time, attitudes towards the breakaway colony were complicated by the fact that "Plucky Little Rhodesia", often described as "more British than the British", had given so much for the mother country in its fight against Nazi Germany.^[55] Smith's own military service and reputation for bravery gave rise to similar sentiments regarding him personally. White Rhodesians widely hailed him a war hero, as did many overseas commentators.^[56] In 1966, Smith supporters in Britain sent him a painting "on behalf of many British people who remained true despite the misguidance of government", depicting two Spitfires taking off for a dawn raid.^[57] Smith retained his affection for the Spitfire for the rest of his life; in his memoirs he described the fighter as "the most beautiful aircraft ever made."^[21] He also remained some proficiency in the Italian language, though according to one Italian visitor his accent was "atrocious".^[58]

Smith's years as an RAF pilot were often alluded to in political rhetoric and popular culture. In the phrase of Martin Francis, "no white Rhodesian kitchen in the 1960s and 1970s was complete without an illustrated dishcloth featuring 'Good Old Smithy' and his trusty Spitfire".^[57] The Rhodesian Front's election strategy of emphasising Smith's reputation as a war hero was criticised by the journalist Peter Niesewand, who was deported from Rhodesia in 1973; according to Niesewand, Smith's contribution to the Allied war effort had been "to crash two perfectly good Hurricane planes [sic] for the loss of no Germans".^[59] Smith won decisive election victories in 1970, 1974 and 1977, and remained in office until the country was reconstituted under majority rule as Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979.^[60] He continued to wear his RAF Spitfire pilot's tie well into old age,^[55] including on the final day before Zimbabwe Rhodesia's formal establishment on 1 June 1979—"a final gesture of defiance", Bill Schwarz writes, "symbolising an entire lost world."^[61]

Notes and references

Footnotes

References

Newspaper and journal articles

Bibliography

Ian Smith Prime Minister of Rhodesia (1964–79) Leader of the Rhodesian Front and successors (1964–87) Leader of the Opposition of Zimbabwe (1980–87) 8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007 Pre-premiership Royal Air Force service Southern Rhodesia Liberal Party 1953 federation referendum Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland United Federal Party Cold War Wind of Change Decolonisation of Africa No independence before majority rule 1961 constitutional referendum Rhodesian Front Premiership 1964 independence referendum Rhodesian mission in Lisbon Unilateral Declaration of Independence (signatories) Harry letters affair Beira Patrol 1969 constitutional referendum Rhodesian Bush War 1975 Victoria Falls Conference 1976 Geneva Conference Internal Settlement Air Rhodesia Flight 825 1979 constitutional referendum Air Rhodesia Flight 827 Post-premiership Government of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Lancaster House Agreement Republican Front Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe General elections 1948 1953 1958 1962 1965 1970 1974 1977 1979 1980 1985 Books authored The Great Betrayal (1997) Bitter Harvest (2001) Family Alec Smith (son) Clem Tholet (son-in-law) Category Commons