William Thomas Smith
British flying ace
Flight Sergeant William Thomas Smith (21 October 1896 – October 1994) was a British World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories.
World War I
Smith enlisted into the Royal Engineers in 1914 with the rank of pioneer, and on 9 December 1916 was awarded the Military Medal "for bravery in the Field".
He then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, serving in No. 45 Squadron RFC. He gained his first aerial victory on 11 August 1917 by shooting down in flames an Albatros D.V over Deûlémont from a Sopwith 1½ Strutter piloted by Captain J. Pender. On 19 October 1917 Smith was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. His citation was published on 25 January 1918 and read:
48027 Pioneer W. T. Smith, Royal Engineers, attached Royal Flying Corps.
"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst acting as aerial gunner to an officer. Having shot down an enemy machine, his own pilot was wounded, and fell forward insensible on to the control lever. Pioneer Smith then climbed forward along the plane, pulled the pilot off the lever and got the machine under control. The officer then partially recovered, whereupon he remained standing on the side of the fuselage shouting words of encouragement to him, and the machine was eventually landed without much damage, entirely owing to his exceptionally gallant and prompt action."
It would be exactly a year after his first that his second victory was gained, and by then he was serving in No.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Thomas Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.