http://www.navytimes.com/legacy/new/0-NAVYPAPER-1642064.php
April 10, 2006
Lt. helped sink Bismarck before U.S. entered WWII
Tuck Smith was in Britain training RAF pilots
By Robert F. Dorr and Fred L. Borch
Special to the Times
Leonard B. “Tuck” Smith, a Navy lieutenant on loan to Great Britain as part of the lend-lease program, may have been the first American to participate in a World War II Allied naval victory.
In May 1941, six months before the U.S. entered the war, Smith was on air patrol near Ireland when he spotted the German pocket battleship Bismarck. His radio message to the British enabled them to locate the famous and much-vaunted Bismarck.
Born in Missouri in 1915, Smith spent his boyhood on a farm until entering flight training with the Navy in 1938. He became a pilot on the PBY-5A Catalina, a flying boat designed for reconnaissance and anti-submarine duty.
After President Roosevelt decided to lend a number of Catalinas to the British through lend-lease, then-Lt. j.g. Smith was sent to Britain to train Royal Air Force pilots.
Smith accompanied the pilots on routine patrols. This explains why he was part of the May 1941 hunt for the Bismarck.
The German warship sunk the battle cruiser Hood, the pride of the British Navy, on May 24. This was a disaster for the British, as only three sailors in the Hood’s crew of 1,418 survived.
After the Bismarck eluded the British ships pursuing it and headed for the open sea, the British mounted a frantic search. Radar was in its infancy, so the only way to locate an enemy was to see him.
About 10:30 a.m., on May 26, 1941, Smith was in a Catalina along with a Royal Air Force pilot and crew. They were flying at an altitude of about 500 feet when Smith looked down through the fog and saw the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. As Smith flew closer, the Bismarck, so far unseen, fired on the plane.
The American and his RAF comrades took shrapnel hits on their aircraft.
“First there was great excitement. We were sent out to look for it, and there it is,” Smith told an interviewer in Ireland in 1992. “But a few minutes later, they [the Bismarck] were shooting at us. Then you have feelings of holy terror.”
Despite a continuing barrage of flak, Smith and the Catalina stayed aloft over the much more powerful Bismarck and began radioing contact reports to the nearest Royal Navy and RAF units. Smith stayed in the air for another five hours, directing air and surface forces to a position from which they attacked and then sank the German battleship May 27.
For his actions, Smith received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Since the U.S. was officially neutral, it was a risky decision to recognize Smith for his participation in a combat operation. Yet, a citation signed by Navy Secretary Frank Knox lauded Smith’s “heroism and extraordinary achievement as a volunteer observer during an aerial search for the German pocket-battleship Bismarck.”
As Smith’s son, Bruce, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve, explained: “Dad is proud of the small role he played in the naval history of World War II, a unique role for an American because the war hadn’t started for us yet.”
Smith retired as a captain in 1962. He now lives on San Juan Island, Wash.
Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of “Chopper,” a history of helicopter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net. Fred L. Borch retired from the Army after 25 years and works in the federal court system. He is the author of “Kimmel, Short and Pearl Harbor,” an analysis of the December 1941 attack on Hawaii. His e-mail address is borchfj@aol.com.
Memo to Sec/Nav. Frank Knox:
I wouldn’t be calling a 50,000 ton warship with a main armamment of eight 15” guns,5.9” guns for secondary armament, over a foot of armor, and a speed in excess of 30 knots, a “pocket battleship”.
And, Frank, you run the U.S Navy?