Lieutenant-Colonel Snuffy Smith
22nd Armoured Regiment (Canadian Grenadier Guards)

I guess we were told the order of battle and where the enemy were and so on but when you get into these things they get so hit and miss and the confusion reigns supreme. You can tell people where to go and so on [but] then when somebody starts to shoot and then they forget about something and do something else. Looking back it always seemed it was more chance than good fortune that things happened.

(Smith interview, 1981)

Born on 21 January 1920 in Dauphin, Manitoba, Hershell Allister Smith joined the Armoured Corps following graduation from RMC in December 1939. Six months later he transferred to the 11th Armoured (Ontario) Regiment. Following training in England, he served a combat tour in North Africa with the 17th/21st Lancers for two months in early 1943. He took command of “C” Squadron in the Ontario Tanks at the end of the Sicily campaign and earned the Military Cross at Ortona in December 1943.

Smith returned to England with Brigadier R.A. Wyman, who had been appointed to 2nd Armoured Brigade in February 1944. Smith transferred to the 22nd Armoured Regiment, which deployed to Normandy in July under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel W.W. Halpenny, who Smith described as “a good regimental officer in a holding unit … When it came to the rougher part of it in my humble estimation he was really over his depth.”

Serving as squadron commander during Operations Totalize and Traceable in August, Smith narrowly escaped his tank when it was destroyed by enemy fire. As the war diary recorded, Smith “rejoined the regt with his upper lip all plastered up and a few missing teeth,” but was now second-in-command. At the age of only twenty-four, he succeeded Halpenny in December. He later commended on the young age of battalion commanders:

You gotta have somebody 35 or under to be in that kind of situation … They had so many of these senior officers when they went overseas and they were all in that echelon but when the war was over they weren’t there … Now you’ve got guys who have learned the trade and came up in it.

During Operation Blockbuster on 26 February 1945, Smith lost his right leg when his command tank was hit by 88mm fire. He was evacuated to England and replaced by his friend Major Ned Amy, who had served in Italy with the 14th Armoured Regiment. Smith’s citation for the Distinguished Service Order read in part:

As a squadron leader and as a commanding officer, Lt-Col Smith never once failed to carry out the tasks assigned to him. His courage, dash and ability as a fighting commander has indeed set a high standard for his regiment, and one which will long be remembered by the officers and men who served under him.

 (D.S.O. citation, 15 Apr 1945)

Smith went on to advocate for disabled veterans and was appointed commanding officer of the Governor General’s Foot Guards from 1947 to 1948. After retirement from the reserve army, he went into the lumber business on the west coast.

He died on 28 August 1998 in Victoria, British Columbia.