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Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith SG MC is a former field officer in the Australian Army, seeing service in both the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War. He was the Officer Commanding D Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment during the Battle of Long Tan. He became the inaugural commanding officer / chief instructor of Australia's Parachute Training School
Harry Arthur Smith was born on 25th July 1933 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. His father, Ron Smith, a Second World War tank Sergeant, worked at the Cadbury factory in Hobart's north. His mother was Anne unknown. Harry was educated at Hobart High School, during which time he spent five years in the School Cadets, attaining the rank of Cadet Lieutenant. [1]
At the end of 1950 he enrolled in a seven-year-long diploma course in metallurgy at night school rather than go to university. The course had classes five nights a week. He obtained work as a laboratory assistant with Austral Bronze at Derwent Park, just north of Hobart. Guided by his Dad, who was good working with timber, Harry found time to build a Rainbow dinghy; taking out the Tasmanian Rainbow Championship and runner-up in the Australian Championship in the summer of 1950-51. [1]
Towards the end of 1951 his 'number' came up in the original ninety-day National Service ballot for eighteen-year-olds, and was inducted in January 1952. He quickly gained promotions to Lance Corporal and then Corporal. After the 90 days, he returned to Austral Bronze to find his job was no longer available! Giving the diploma course a miss, he enlisted in the Australian Regular Army in May 1952. After a non-commissioned officer's (NCO) course he was given the temporary rank of Corporal and the job of section instructor, training National Servicemen. At his father's urging he applied for and was accepted into Officer Cadet School, Portsea, Victoria, [1] graduating as a Second Lieutenant (on less pay than he received as a Corporal!). Allocated to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, he was posted as a Platoon Commander to the 18th National Service Training Battalion, in southern Tasmania. Whilst there, he was detached to RAAF Base Williamtown to gain his 'wings' – a qualified parachutist – the first step into what was to become a career allied to parachuting and other Special Forces activities, and the first of five hundred career jumps. [1]
Harry married in 1954-55.
In mid-1955 Harry was posted as a Platoon Commander to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR). The Korean War ended before he got settled and, in December, until October 1957, he served with the battalion in Singapore and Malaya during the Malayan Emergency and gaining promotion to Lieutenant. For that service he was awarded the General Service Medal with Malaya Clasp [2] and Australian Active Service Medal 1945-75.
Harry's young bride, pregnant, was forced to remain in Hobart until married quarters became available in Penang, Malaya, in May 1956. Deborah Anne was born in the June. [1] Back in Australia, based in Sydney with 2RAR, the Smith's had two further children, Sharon (1958) and Brett (1961). [1] He soon gained promotion to Captain.
On promotion to Major in 1965, Harry was appointed officer commanding D Company, 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, based in Enoggera, Brisbane. He deployed to South Vietnam with his unit on 8th June 1966. [3] Harry seemed to be in conflict with his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Colin 'Mousey' Townsend, much of the time, being accused of 'training his company to a standard above that expected of infantry companies', implementing tropical warfare and Special Forces techniques, and teaching his subordinate officers to 'do para-rolls out of the top-floor windows of the Officers Mess'. In his autobiography, Harry, whose nickname was Harry the Rat-catcher, reflected that maybe it was just that catchers of mice and rats were incompatible. [1]
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Military Cross |
For his part in commanding D Company in the Battle of Long Tan on 18-19th August 1966, Harry was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order but it was downgraded and he was awarded the Military Cross (MC); gazetted on 21st December 1966. [4] The government of the Republic of Vietnam created Harry Knight of the National Order of Vietnam and awarded him both the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
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Major Harry Smith debriefing the battle |
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Returned from Active Service Badge |
His tour of duty completed, Harry returned to Australia with the battalion on 14th June 1967. [3] For this additional war service the Australian Government awarded him the Vietnam Medal.
Harry next commanded the 1st Commando Company at Georges Heights, Sydney. Unable to cope with life as an 'Army wife', his wife had left him after Vietnam in Sydney; taking the children with her. Harry retained strong relationships with his children and, eventually, five grandchildren. He was selected for the 1970 Staff College course at Queenscliff, a year of quasi-university type work with military subjects. As a result of his active service experience, he qualified near the top of the course. After Queenscliff, he struck up a relationship with RAN officer, Anne. He was next posted as DAA&QMG (senior administrative staff officer), Headquarters Western Command, Perth. Whilst there, he organised the Western Command Army Sailing Club with the newly acquired Corsairs; taking out the WA Corsair Champion Title in late 1971 and then skippered the 15-metre yacht Siska on loan to the Army Club. Back in New South Wales and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he was the inaugural commanding officer / chief instructor of the Parachute Training School, at RAAF Base Williamtown, north of Newcastle. [5][6] Whilst at Williamtown, he was posted to the UK, Canada, and USA for thirteen months, in 1972-73, of joint warfare training and considerable parachuting work. [1]
As it was an 'accompanied' posting Harry was able to obtain a decree nisi and married Anne so that 'we were able to see the world as well as undertake all the work required of me'. Back at Williamtown, the RAAF officers were bemused by this Army officer who enjoyed jumping out of perfectly serviceable aircraft, was married to a former RAN officer and was building a fifteen-metre yacht in the backyard of his married quarters. [1]
Following a parachuting accident in 1975, his aspirations of commanding an infantry battalion and later a task force completely disappeared, Harry retired from the Army in March 1976. [1]
He was awarded the National Medal in 1977. [7]
Harry obtained work marketing sea safety equipment in Sydney for Beaufort. He left that job in 1978, having bought a house at Bilgola Plateau, in Sydney's north with the aid of a War Service home loan and long service money. Without an income, however, Harry and Anne chose to live on the yacht and rent the house to supplement his small superannuation income. The couple slowly sailed up and down the coast to the Whitsundays each year, becoming involved in research for a guidebook to be used by charterers called The 100 Magic Miles of the Whitsundays. Their names are still recorded in the Acknowledgments section of the latest edition. Harry gained a Marine Master 4 Qualification in Brisbane in 1985 and took up some light work driving charter boats. They sold the Bilgola Plateau house and bought in Airlie Beach, North Queensland. In 1994 they sold the Airlie beach house and the yacht and settled in Nambour, in Queensland's Sunshine Coast Hinterland; close to Anne's family. [1]
By 2003, Harry was back racing yachts, Harry and Anne had separated and he was in a relationship with one of his crew, Felicia Smith. They moved to Hervey Bay, on Queensland's Fraser Coast and married on 20th September 2003 in a garden ceremony at Hervey Bay. [1]
Harry has remained haunted all his life by the events of 18th August 1966 and the memory of all those who lost their lives. He has also remained critical of the poor performances of his superiors at that time, commanding officer 6th Battalion Lieutenant Colonel Colin Townsend and commander 1st Australian Task Force Brigadier Oliver Jackson; who both managed to be cited for Companions of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) while many of Harry's Heroes went without awards.
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Star of Gallantry |
On 14 August 2008, after years of campaigning for better recognition of Long Tan veterans, Harry's Military Cross was upgraded to the Star of Gallantry (SG), the Australian honours system replacement for the Imperial Distinguished Service Order. On the same day, two others who fought at Long Tan also had their gallantry awards upgraded to correspond to the original recommendations. On 9th March 2011 at the Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum, Victoria, Harry was presented with the Star of Gallantry by local MP Paul Neville. Many of the Long Tan veterans were in attendance for the ceremony. [8][9] He was awarded the Australian Defence Medal when it was struck in the early 2000s.
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Australian Defence Medal |
Aged 90 years, Harry passed away on 20th August 2023 in Buderim, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. [10]
Connections to Super Bowl halftime show performers: Harry is 31 degrees from Prince Nelson, 25 degrees from Dan Aykroyd, 29 degrees from Garth Brooks, 36 degrees from Chubby Checker, 34 degrees from Ella Fitzgerald, 29 degrees from Dusty Hill, 40 degrees from Whitney Houston, 23 degrees from Mick Jagger, 27 degrees from Paul McCartney, 28 degrees from Tom Petty, 28 degrees from Chris Stapleton and 32 degrees from Shania Twain on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
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Categories: Hobart, Tasmania | Portsea, Victoria | Australia, National Service Scheme | 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment | 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment | Military Cross | Star of Gallantry | Vietnam Medal (Australia) | National Medal (Australia) | Australian Defence Medal | Anniversary of National Service 1951-1972 Medal | Knights of the National Order of Vietnam | Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm | Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal | Hervey Bay, Queensland | Australia, Notables in the Military | Notables