Australian Spitfire pilot laid to rest after 67 years.

Easter this year coincides with ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand. In keeping with the religious aspects of the season we have recently honoured one of our war dead with a resurrection of sorts.
Flight Lieutenant Henry 'Lacy' Smith was recently buried with full military honours in the Ranville War Graves Cemetery, not far from where he was shot down in 1944.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5639925432_7121f55071_z.jpg

He was leading a patrol over the Normandy beaches a few days after the D-Day landings when hit by anti-aircraft fire. His plane was seen to crash into the water of the Orne estuary but was not recovered. Pilot and aircraft were lost until a low tide uncovered the fuselage last November.

Flt-Lt Smith's headstone is inscribed with the opening lines of "High Flight" by John Magee.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.



(Photo from the gallery of Australian Veteran's Affairs Minister Warren Snowden. More here.)

 

Salute, to him and all others who gave their lives protecting Freedom. :major

 

Many brave men and women went unremembered during the war in Europe, it's nice to see one given the burial he deserved all those years ago.