Thomas Smart

Thomas Smart was born around 1919 in Broughton-in-Furness, Cumberland, and joined the Royal Air Force as a regular officer, receiving service number 40324. He flew Spitfires with No. 65 Squadron during the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain, and on 28 May 1940 was forced to land his aircraft on a beach near Dunkirk after a glycol-tank strike, successfully setting the machine ablaze and making his way back to England by sea. His sustained fighting during that period, in which he destroyed at least six enemy aircraft, was recognised with the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 4 February 1941. Smart rose to the rank of Acting Squadron Leader and took command of No. 229 Squadron, then based in Malta and flying Spitfire Vb fighter-bombers against targets in Sicily. On 12 April 1943 he led a mixed strike of eight Spitfire bombers from 229 and 249 Squadrons against Comiso airfield; on the return flight his aircraft suffered an engine failure some fifteen to twenty miles south of Pozzallo, and although he bailed out over the sea he drowned before rescue could reach him. He was awarded a posthumous Bar to his DFC with effect from 11 April 1943, gazetted in September 1945; having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Malta Memorial at Panel 6, Column 1.