THE first man to drop a bomb on Germany in this war, says the Wolverhampton Express and Star, was 19-year-old aircraftman flying observer John Oscar Smith, only son of Mr. John Smith, once of the Durham Light Infantry, and Mrs. Smith, of The Bungalow, Furlong Walk, Lower Gornal.
Mr. and Mrs Smith—she is a masseuse and nurse—and their pretty 18-year-old daughter Karin were very proud when they read a letter the other day describing his exploit. Nineteen years old Oscar, in the coolest way imaginable, told how he dropped the first bomb in the now famous Kiel Canal raid.
I was in the leading machine of ten which flew over the Kiel Canal," he wrote "We had a rare scrap, and I quite enjoyed it. We put a bomb clean through the middle of the Admiral Graf Spee, Germany's pocket battleship.
"I am sorry to say spoiled all the sailors' underpants, which were hanging out on the deck. I was the first to bomb Germany in this war. When returned we got a rousing reception when they heard we were the 'Kiel boys.'"
“Oscar has always been like that." said his mother, commenting on the letter. "Always in no matter what he undertakes, he has supreme confidence, and somehow he instils that confidence into us I am never afraid for Oscar. "While Mrs. Smith was talking Karin was busy preparing to go on ARP work—night duty at the telephone exchange. Her father was already out on decontamination work, while, weary but proud. Mrs. Smith, who did nursing service throughout the whole of the last war, had just returned from duty at the Birmingham Hospital. "Oscar," she continued, "is old Wolverhampton Grammar School boy. His whole heart was the services, and he went straight from school into the Air Force." When was suggested that the men who carried out the raid might receive some decorations, she smiled proudly and her eyes sparkled. "Well Oscar," she said, as if speaking to herself, "you dropped the first bomb, old son Pray God you live to see the last."