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.

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