World War II
As war loomed in summer 1939, he re-enlisted with his former Regiment, the Lancashire Fusiliers and was among the first contingent of the British Expeditionary Force to sail for France.
Having achieved the rank of Lieutenant, he was killed in action in France, on 12 January 1940 (possibly due to friendly fire, this was five months before the start of the Battle of France in May) and is buried at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery of Beuvry Communal Cemetery Extension.
Read more about this topic: Edward Smith (VC)
Famous quotes containing the words world war, world and/or war:
“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Orthodoxy is the Bourbon of the world of thought. It learns not, neither can it forget.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.”
—Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)