Guns were tools to Eddie. He knew quite a lot about them and was completely comfortable in their use but didn’t study them as I might. He did, however, have a great deal of wisdom to impart on the subject.Eddie admired the carbine and carried one for a good part of his time in combat. He did say that it often took multiple hits to put a man down with one. By contrast, he held the M1 Garand in enormous esteem. He said if you hit a man solidly most any-where with an M1, that guy was done.
Air Marshal Sir Roy Austen-Smith
Air Marshal Sir Roy Austen-Smith, who has died aged 96, flew on operations during the final weeks of the war in Europe, saw action in Malaya and later held senior appointments overseas.
He trained as a pilot in Canada, and in March 1945 joined 41 Squadron based at Eindhoven flying the Spitfire XIV. For the next six weeks he flew almost every day on armed reconnaissance sorties and fighter sweeps into Germany.
The squadron moved frequently and was near Hanover by mid-April. On March 2, during a patrol over Schwerin airfield, he shot down a Fiesler Storch and damaged a second.