Description

For sale is a set of medals comprising General Service Medal (G.VI.R.) impressed named 5248719. PTE F.J. SMITH. R. SCOTS.; British War and Victory Medals unnamed as issued. Court mounted for display they come with copies of medal roll, and P.O.W. roll.

Private Frederick John Smith was born on 19/6/1911 the son of Pte Thomas Smith (S/13112) Rifle Brigade, who died of wounds on 1/4/1918.

A prewar regular he served with the 1st Battalion Royal Scots and was with then in Palestine qualifying for his GSM when the war commenced in 1939.

The Battalion deployed to France with the BEF on 21/9/1939 as part of 2nd Division and spent the ‘Phoney War’, other than 3 weeks over New Year when they deployed to the Maginot Line, on the Franco-Belgian Border at the large village of Lecelles, some 10 miles due south of Tournai in Belgium. On 10/5/1940 the Germans invaded Belgium and the Battalion moved forward to its pre-arranged deployment position at Wavre on the river Dyle, only some 5 miles east of Waterloo. They remained there without contact with the Germans, apart from bombing, until the night of 15/16 May when they were ordered to withdraw as the German advance threatened to cut off the BEF from the Channel ports. The withdrawal continued with only minor contact with the enemy. By the 21st the Battalion was holding a position on the River Escaut just south of Tournai. The Battalion was in continuous action all day, suffering over 150 casualties but not losing an inch of ground. The fighting continued the next day, losing a further 50 casualties, until the Battalion was ordered to resume the withdrawal that night. This continued until 26 May when the 2nd Division was ordered to fight ‘to the last round and last man’ as part of an outer defensive perimeter, beyond artillery range, to cover the evacuation from Dunkirk. After a desperate defence, together with the 2nd Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment, of the Bethune-Merville road in the area of the village of Le Paradis, and after appalling losses and virtually out of ammunition, 1 RS had effectively ceased to exist by 30 May. They, with the Norfolks, had disrupted the German advance for three critical days during which a closer defensive line had been created around Dunkirk and the evacuation had been organised and got well under way. It was at Le Paradis that almost 100 soldiers of the Norfolks were massacred after surrendering to the Totenkopf SS Regiment. Only a handful of Royal Scots made it back to England with 292 eventually becoming prisoners of war. Close to 500 had been killed or wounded including, amongst the latter, Lieutenant Colonel Money the Commanding Officer. He was seriously wounded on 27 May and evacuated to a dressing station at La Gorgue, the very spot he had been taken to 25 years earlier when wounded in the Great War. Eventually he made it back to England over the beach at Dunkirk. Perhaps the greatest tributes to the Battalion were paid not by members of the Regiment or the British Chain of Command. Lieutenant Michel Martell of the famous French brandy family and the Battalion’s French Liaison officer. He wrote to the, by now, Brigadier Money after the war saying ‘Your Battalion was the most wonderful anyone could have hoped to command and, during the five years we waited for our freedom (he was a POW), after living with The Royal Scots, I could never despair of seeing Germany beaten’. The other was from a German officer whoescorted some wounded Royal Scots to a French hospital. On handing them over to the Chaplain there he stated ‘They fought like lions’.

Initially reported as ‘missing’ on 21/5/1940 he was later confirmed as P.O.W. he was sent to Stalag 20A, Thorn Podgorz, Poland being liberated on 12/6/1945.