Flutterby™! : Smoky Smith

Smoky Smith, last Canadian awarded the Victoria Cross, dies. The article is well worth reading, this guy was a serious badass. Promoted to corporal and busted back to private nine times, single-handedly held off three tanks, two self-propelled guns and about 30 infantry. This is the sort of guy Lee Marvin wishes he could have played:

Smith heard he'd won the Victoria Cross about seven weeks after the fight. His reputation as a party animal preceded him. Military police were sent to take him to the ceremony with King George VI in London.

"They picked me up in Naples or somewhere and they put me in jail,'' Smith recalled with his trademark grin.

"`Don't let him loose in this town. Don't let him loose. He's a dangerous fellow.'

As I said, read the whole damned thing:

"Try to do this as often as you can,'' said Smith, who used to kill enemy troops with a half-metre-long, Indian-style warclub bristling with nails.

"You never know when your last sunrise is going to be.''