DEATH OF HERO

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 55, 2 September 1943, Page 3

DEATH OF HERO

LEGENDARY FIGURE

USED JAPANESE SWORD

SYDNEY, '24.

O.C. :■•■■;■. : SYDNEY, 24; With /the death of Acting Sergeant John Smith, 26-year-old Sydney woolclasser, passes ■ another New Guinea hero whose name became almost legendary to; his Australian and United States comrades.

Smith, who won a Military Medal in Sydney, and also • fought in Libya and Greece, used to go into battle in New Guinea whistling "The Wizard of Oz" and whirling a captured Japanese officer's swt>rd, which he used with deadly effect. A Sydney war correspondent, Alan Jones, : wrote that on the! first day of the Mount Tambu battle, the Japs called out to the Australians: "Come out, you conscripts, and fight the sons of Nippon." Smith leapt out of a weapon; pit and roared back: "We'll give you all the fight you want tomorrow." The next day Smith led his men into action and took the objective. He was fatally wounded in eight places]on;July 24 by a grenade which killed an American beside him. Jones said that Smith was a born leader and had the courage of a lion. He used to "father" young American troops seeing action for the first time. One of them is now known as "John Smith. Junior."