Smith, Laurence Henry (Lieutenant, b.1896 - d.1982)

Collection relating to the First World War service of 2383 Lieutenant Laurence Henry Smith, Australian Flying Corps, Middle East, 1915-1918.

The collection consists of two documents. The first document contains the particulars of service and recollections of Lieutenant Smith. Smith recalls when he was shot down, that it was believed that he and the pilot had both died because his aircraft fell approximately 1000 feet; and that their families were advised as such.

Smith records that the food shortages were the worst trial, although concedes that the Turkish troops suffered the same complaint. He mentions meeting General Liman von Sanders in Aleppo before being moved to Afyonkarahisar where he was held in a prisoner of war camp. He discusses his experiences in the camp, contracting malaria and dysentery, and describes his treatment when Turkish doctors believed that Smith had tuberculosis, during which time he was tested with the same thermometer as another prisoner who was said to have the same disease. Smith explains that this has proven to be incorrect and that he never had the disease “although they tried very hard to give it to me”. Smith also discusses the paralysis of his legs, which he believed was caused by malaria, and his treatment of it with the help of an Indian trooper who administered him massages.

Smith also records meeting with Cedric Waters Hill, an Australian officer with the Royal Flying Corps who was captured and escaped from Yozgad prisoner of war camp, and whose story is recounted by his co-escapee Elias Henry Jones in “The Road to En-dor”. Smith mentions that they embarked for Egypt together on the HMHS “Kanowna”. Smith also describes a chance conversation with Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence in Damascus.

The second document in the collection is a typed letter written to Smith from Victor Haefner, the pilot who had shot down Smith’s plane, dated May 1924. Haefner reminisces about his experiences as a pilot during the war, his forced landing by Bristol Fighters, the defeat of the German army on the Western Front, and the death of his two brothers shortly before the Armistice. Haefner is also critical of the social unrest in Germany at the time, writing “To-day we are laughed at – sneered at – we are being put in jail!”. Later that year Haefner himself would be arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison for espionage against Germany. An anti-fascist activist, Haefner left Germany for Paris c. 1933 during the Nazi Party's rise to power, and then left Paris for England with the outbreak of the Second World War. His name appears in the “Sonderfahndungsliste G.B.”, the Schutzstaffel’s Black Book.

• Wallet 1 of 1 - Papers of Laurence Henry Smith, c.1924