5 SECOND ROW John Elliot Smart MBE DSO - FACING DANGER IN A MIDGET SUBMARINE

John Elliott Smart (known as Jack) was born in Sunderland in 1916 and died in Canada in 2008. He played for the club in the second row  and across the forwards  for four years in the early 1930s. His father was a master butcher and the family lived at West Hill and Jack attended St Peter’s School, York. He began life in the navy as a probationary officer in 1938 and received a full commission in 1939. He then spent time in minesweepers before moving into training on midget submarines. Once trained, he took part in two daring midget submarine raids. Operation Source was against Germany’s biggest ships and , in particular, the Tirpitz and the aim was to place limpet mines under the vessels. During this operation Jack’s vessel lost contact with base for 37 hours. Later in the war he led an attack on Japanese vessels after a journey of 80 miles as part of Operation Struggle. On arrival he placed mines under the Japanese vessel uncertain as to whether another submarine had already laid theirs -mines which might have exploded at any time. For his bravery here and earlier he was awarded an MBE and DSO and made an officer of the Legion of Merit by the Americans. He remained in the RNVR after the war, became a lieutenant commander and was given the VRD (Volunteer Reserve Decoration). He later emigrated to Canada.

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