Irving Smith (RAF officer)

Due to the loss of Pickard, Smith became acting station commander at Hunsdon and also briefly commanded No. 140 Wing. In May, Smith, having relinquished his acting commands, and his squadron were transferred from No. 2 Group to the 2nd Tactical Air Force and commenced operations in support of the forthcoming invasion of Normandy. At night it continued to target the Luftwaffe airfields in France, Belgium and Holland, and in the six weeks prior to D-Day, it mounted 30 such missions, without losing any aircraft. During daylight hours it attacked the launching sites for flying bombs and transport infrastructure. On the night of 5 June, just prior to D-Day, several raids were mounted on targets in Caen and Saint-Lô and in the days afterwards it sought to destroy German forces moving to the Allied beachhead established at Normandy. By the end of August, at which time Smith relinquished command of the squadron, it had flown over 900 missions.

Retiring from the RAF on medical grounds in February 1966, Smith settled in Devon where he took up farming. He died on 16 February 2000. He was predeceased by his wife, Joan née Debenham, a former officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force who he had married in London in November 1942, and one of his two daughters. His son, Rupert Smith, was a general in the British Army who served as deputy supreme commander of Allied Forces Europe at NATO headquarters.

Smith served as a staff officer at Fighter Command headquarters from June 1953 until the start of 1956, at which time he was posted to the United States of America on an exchange program with the United States Air Force. He attended the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk and then served at Tactical Air Command at Langley Air Force Base. Returning to the United Kingdom in 1958, he was promoted to group captain that August and took command of the RAF's station at Jever, in Germany. In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1961, Smith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Shortly afterwards he was assigned to the headquarters of Signals Command in a staff role. In 1964 he was sent to attend the National Defence College at Kingston, Ontario, in Canada.

Early in 1946 Smith attended the RAF Staff College in Haifa and later in the year was assigned to a staff role at Air Headquarters in Malta. He was back in the United Kingdom for staff training in 1948, attending the Army Staff College at Camberley. At the start of 1950, he was appointed commander of No. 56 Squadron, which operated the Gloster Meteor from Waterbeach. By the middle of the year he had taken a wing commander (flying) role at Tangmere and a few months later assumed a similar appointment at Wattisham. He was appointed station commander at Church Fenton in January 1952 and in that year's Queen's Birthday Honours was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Placed on staff duties at the headquarters of Fighter Command in March 1943, Smith soon requested a return to operations. He was given command of the Mosquito-equipped No. 488 (NZ) Squadron in September but this was rescinded when Group Captain Basil Embry, who thought highly of Smith, requested his services for a training role at No. 2 Group. He eventually returned to operations as commander of No. 487 (NZ) Squadron in February 1944. His new charge was part of No. 2 Group, and was one of the squadrons of No. 140 Mosquito Wing at Hunsdon. At the time, it was switching from daylight operations to a nighttime intruder role and many of its subsequent missions involved attacking enemy airfields in occupied France and Holland.

On 19 February 1942, Smith was promoted to acting squadron leader and took command of No. 151 Squadron. The same day, while flying a Defiant, he led the squadron in a patrol, providing cover for a convoy making its way along the Norfolk coast. Sighting German bombers attacking the convoy, he maneuvered his Defiant into a position where his gunner shot down a Do 17 and damaged a Junkers Ju 88 medium bomber. In April, the squadron stood down from operations for a time while converting to the de Havilland Mosquito but was back in action again by the end of the following month. By this time Smith had been promoted, to acting wing commander. He destroyed a He 111 and Do 217 on 24 June, and another He 111 was probably destroyed the same night. In mid-July, he was awarded a bar to his DFC. The citation for the bar read:

By November, the Luftwaffe had significantly increased its nighttime bombing raids and in response, a number of squadrons, including No. 151 Squadron, switched to a night-fighting role. It converted to the Boulton Paul Defiant but in addition to its two flights of this type retained one, commanded by Smith, of Hurricanes. From December, and operating from Wittering, the squadron was tasked with protecting the Midlands region. During this time, on 7 March 1941, Smith was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). By this time he was nicknamed 'Black', to distinguish him from another pilot with the same name; that pilot was nicknamed 'White'.

Born in Invercargill, New Zealand, Smith joined the RNZAF in 1939 but was sent in England for training with the RAF. He flew Hawker Hurricanes with No. 151 Squadron during the Battle of Britain. The squadron switched to night fighting duties during the Blitz and by 1942 he was its commander. He spent most of 1943 on staff duties but returned to operations in February 1944 as commander of No. 487 (NZ) Squadron. He led it for the most of 1944, including during Operation Jericho and in air support duties for the D-Day landings in Normandy. The final months of the war was spent on instructing duties. Having formally transferred to the RAF from the RNZAF, he held a series of flying and administrative posts in the postwar period until his retirement in 1966. He later farmed in Devon and died in 2000, at the age of 82.

In September 1939, and with the Second World War now underway, Smith was at No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School at Yatesbury, learning to fly on Tiger Moths, before going on to No. 2 Flying Training School at Brize Norton in March the following year. In July 1940, with his flight training completed, he was posted to the RAF's No. 151 Squadron. His new unit was based at North Weald and flew the Hawker Hurricane.

Irving Stanley Smith CBE, DFC & Bar (21 May 1917 – 16 February 2000) was a New Zealand flying ace of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War, who subsequently transferred to the Royal Air Force (RAF). He was credited with the destruction of eight enemy aircraft.

Born in Invercargill, New Zealand, on 21 May 1917, Irving Stanley Smith was the son of A. E. Smith and his wife. The family later moved north to Whangārei, where he was educated at Whau Valley School and then went on to Whangarei Boys' High School. He was working as an apprentice coachwork painter in Auckland when he was accepted for a short service commission in the Royal New Zealand Air Force in January 1939. He commenced training at Māngere in May, but soon went to England for flight training with the Royal Air Force (RAF).