I travelled to Italy in March 2007, with a group of students from Windsor Secondary. On our trip we travelled to Monte Cassino just outside Rome. There we did a memmorial for soldiers lost in World War Two. We paid a special tribute to this soldier, D.W Smith. I read this poem at his gravesite for his family. We video taped the tribute and gave it to the family at a ceremony after our trip.
Graveside Reading for Trooper D.W. Smith who was killed May 30, 1944
As a child I would walk
Through a Canadian cemetery on a quiet spring day.
with my grandmother, your mother.
Together we would read the headstones,
Looking for someone no longer here.
My grandmother, your mother, my mother, my aunt, your sisters,
My grandfather, your dad,
None could travel to visit your grave,
though we would remember you
in quiet moments with photographs
When they buried you
In the church yard near Torrice Crossroads
It was amidst the noise and chaos of war
Days of bombs exploding, shouting, moaning
Tanks rumbling over rough terrain
There was no peace at all
Later your remains were moved to Monte Cassino
to rest together with so many others
You gave up your lives
For peace longed for by so many
And now, through the camera’s eye,
We might visit your grave
And remember the gift of a young Life
Given so completely
That “even Death must have been a little shamed.”*
*Line from Mona Gould’s poem “This was my brother”
Written in loving memory by Linda Moore, niece of the uncle I never met,
Daniel Weir Smith (deceased)
Born September 20, 1924 in Scotland,
immigrated to Canada with his family,
and they settled in Vancouver. Having
been a sea cadet in the Seaforth Highlanders.
He enlisted with 2nd Canadian Armoured
Regiment, Lord Strathcona’s Horse
(Royal Canadians) Tank Corps in 1942. In May 1943 he trained inBorden before going overseas. In Italy, as part of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, the Strathcona’s fought alongside the Westminster Regiment (Motor). In May 1944, immediately following the breaking of the Hitler Line, in the Liri Valley, the Regiment made it possible to seize
and gain the bridgehead over the Melfa River, pushing the enemy troops into retreat.
He was in C Squadron, 3rd Troop
named “Chilliwack 1” commanded by
Cpl. Lawson, J.C. until Lawson was killed on 25 May 1944. He became Acting
Corporal Smith D. W., 5 days later he was killed. News traveled slowly during wartime, and it wasn’t until June 8th that the family received the telegram informing them of the tragic loss. As far as his family knows, he was killed instantly when the tank was hit. He was buried in a small church yard but later his body was carefully exhumed and moved to the Monte Cassino Cemetery.
