Australian WW2 Spitfire pilot funeral this week !!

[rogerk]

Australian flight lieutenant Henry 'Lacy 'Smiths Spitfire was dug out of an estuary in Ouistreham near Caen in France in November last year.

The plane was shot down on June 11th 1944 .

Two-thirds of a century later , Flt Lt Smiths remains , which where recovered from the broken plane , will be buried with full military honours at a Commonwealth War Grave cemetery at Ranville on tuesday 19th April at 11.30 hrs.

[Halton Brat]

These occasions serve to remind us all of the sacrifices made, and the debt we owe, to Flt Lt Smith's generation. May he rest in peace.

I hope that somebody (BBMF/Grace Spit/Charlie Brown Mk V) is going to put a Spitfire flypast on for this........

On Weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by

(Lord Balfour of Inchrye)

(I acknowledge that this little gem relates to the BofB, but a) Flt Lt Smith may have been a combatant? and b) I'm very fond of it).

Ad Astra, Flt Lt Smith..........

[Ann Oyd]

A Spitfire flypast and the timeless roar of a Merlin Engine over Ranville this morning as Flt Lt Smith RAAF was reinterred today. A fitting tribute to one of 'The Few'.