Mason Smith
| Date and Place of Birth: | October 18, 1921 Hoisington, KS |
| Date and Place of Death: | November 4, 1944 St. Avold, France |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | Pitcher |
| Rank: | Staff Sergeant |
| Military Unit: | 155th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 10th Reconnaissance Group, Ninth Air Force USAAF |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
John M. "Mason" Smith was born in Hoisington, Kansas, and grew up in
Fort Smith, Arkansas. He attended St. Anne's Academy where he
quarterbacked the Buffaloes football team and later played
baseball with Johnson City of the Ban Johnson League. In 1941, Smith was
15-4 with Johnson City and was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals at the
end of the season. He was assigned to the Albany Cardinals of the Class
D Georgia-Florida League for 1942, where he was 14-8 with a 3.05 ERA in
28 appearances despite the team's sixth place finish.
Smith was expected to join the Asheville Tourists of the Class B
Piedmont League for 1942, but a promising career was put on hold when he
entered military service in November 1942. Smith served with the Army
Air Force at Keesler Field, Mississippi, and Lowry Field in Denver,
Colorado, before attending aerial gunnery school at Wendover Field,
Utah.
In 1943, Smith graduated as a gunner and was promoted to sergeant. He
was sent to the European Theater in February 1944, with the 155th
Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron of the 10th Reconnaissance Group,
Ninth Air Force. The group initially operated out of Chalgrove Airfield,
near Oxford, England, and photographed airfields, coastal defenses, and
ports, while taking bomb-damage assessment photographs of airfields,
marshaling yards, bridges, and other targets, in preparation for the
Normandy invasion. As a gunner on a Douglas F-3A Havoc twin-engined
airplane, Smith was involved in supporting the invasion in June 1944, by
making visual and photographic reconnaissance missions.
As the Allied forces advanced through mainland Europe the 10th
Reconnaissance Group followed and by November they were stationed at
Saint-Dizier (A-64) in France, supporting the Third Army in the battle to
breach the Siegfried Line. On November 4, 1944, Staff Sergeant Mason
Smith was killed aboard an F-3A Havoc (#43-21458) that was on a mission
to photograph German forces around Yutz, France, but crash landed at
Metzeresche.
The airplane was so severley damaged that the bodies of the three
occupants could not be individually identified and are buried together at
the Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold, France.
|
Year |
Team |
League |
Class |
G |
IP |
ER |
BB |
SO |
W |
L |
ERA |
| 1942 | Albany | Georgia-Florida | D | 28 | 186 | 63 | 99 | 107 | 14 | 8 | 3.05 |
John M. "Mason" Smith
Mason Smith (back row, far right, #40) with the St. Anne's Academy football team in 1940
A Douglas F-3A Havoc. The type that crash-landed at Saint-Dizier on November 4, 1944
S/Sgt. John M. "Mason" Smith is buried with his
comrades in arms,
1/Lt. Joseph E. Ryan and 2/Lt. Thomas Martin
Thanks to John H. Bridges for help with this biography. Thanks also to Astrid van Erp for help with photos for this biography
Date Added March 7, 2012. Updated August 3, 2017
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