Bernard A. Smart

Bernard Arthur Smart ( 24 December 1891 in Luton, north of London - May 1979 in Luton) was a British pilot in single-minded airplanes during World War I, which performed some of the world's first aircraft attacks from aircraft carriers that were actually rebuilt cruisers with catapults and a small flying deck.

History
On August 21, 1917, he took off from HMS Yarmouth in a Sopwith Pup plane and shot down German airship L 23 with 16 persons aboard over the North Sea, 40 km from Jutland's west coast beyond Stadil Fjord.

Downing of Airship L23
"I could see a man and an object unpleasantly like a machine-gun on top of the envelope, and I now realised the time had come. I was now at 7,000 feet and the Zeppelin a thousand feet below at an angle of 45 degrees and I was still heading straight for her stern. I pushed forward the control stick and dived. The speed indicator went with a rush up to 150 m.p.h. ... and rammed down the machine-gun’s operating lever - and held it there. The gun spat out and ... the Zeppelin was now a mass of flames and had dropped so that the nose was pointing to the sky at an angle of 45 degrees while the flames were fast licking up towards the nose ... An object was adrift from the forward end of the Zeppelin which I first took to be some part of the fabric falling off, but on looking again I discovered it to be a man descending in a parachute. He was the only one, and as he floated down, he and I seemed to be alone in space. I turned until my compass was in the opposite direction to that when I had been chasing the Zeppelin and then looked back to have a last glance at the blaze. The wreck had just reached the sea, only the very tip of it still being intact -- Bernard A. Smart"

After destroying the airship Bernard A. Smart was actually unsure of where his support ships were located as he had been disoriented during the attack. Luckily the smoke from the airship attracted a British Navy squadron and he was able to ditch his plane in the water and was rescued by a British destroyer.

On July 19, 1918, he was sent from HMS Furious ca. 15 miles west of Lyngvig lighthouse as a pilot on a Sopwith Camel plane and led to the Tønder Bombing Raid of the airship base in Tønder, where the air ships L 54 and L 60 were burned in the big Toska hall. Smart was honored 9 weeks after the shooting of L 23 with the DSO order. On board of HMS Furious in the presence of Admiral David Beatty, he was presented on July 24, 1918, to his great surprise for King George V, who decorated him with an extra bar as he already had the DSO order in advance.

Home in Luton
Bernard Arthur Smart was the son of Charles Smart and wife Kate in Luton and worked in the parents' company in 1911, producing straw hats. At the age of 24 years on July 24, 1916, he qualified to become a pilot at Royal Naval Air Service. After the war, in 1919, he retired as a pilot and became a businessman. In 1927, he became a cousin of Geoffrey Bowman Jenkins' company Bowman Models in Dereham, Norfolk, producing toys such as steam engines, boats, and locomotives.

Smart died in 1979 in Luton and in 2011 some of his aftermaths were sold, including His DSO medal, going under the hammer for £ 63,000 (£ 0 in 2024)