“HIS COMRADES WERE SO INSPIRED THAT THE BRIDGEHEAD WAS HELD FIRM AGAINST ALL ENEMY ATTACKS”
VC citation
he Mark V Panther was close, but not close enough for Ernest ‘Smokey’ Smith to fire his PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) into the beast’s hull. Pressed up against the side of the ditch beside his wounded comrade, ignoring the command car already out of action and two self-propelled guns (SPGs) being engaged elsewhere, he fumbled with the cumbersome 15kg weapon and waited for the right moment. The tank lurching towards him continued to spit rounds into the rain-sodden earth as it had when it struck the now-groaning Private James Tennant. But Smokey, a notoriously insubordinate soldier from the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada – having been promoted and demoted nine times – remained undeterred by the Germans’ 26th Panzer Division column in front of him. Finally, with the Panther about nine
