Maurice Smith militaria collection

Maurice Smith was born in Winnipeg circa 1924; he was in Grade 10 when the Second World War started. He volunteered to serve with the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps and was trained as a soldier. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, Smith was on embarkation leave in Winnipeg. Within weeks he was sent overseas; the Canadian Army needed infantry men, so he remustered and trained for infantry. Private Smith was a reinforcement in Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment during the invasion of Italy. He was part of the First Canadian Army during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945. After the cessation of hostilities, Smith bartered for Nazi pins and badges, trading them for cigarettes. His regiment escorted Nazi soldiers home to Germany, and guarded German army supply dumps, where he picked up more memorabilia and a naval flag. After Smith’s regiment was sent home, he stayed and was attached to the British Army of the Rhine and transferred to Paris, France to work on movement control as part of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.

Items in this collection were collected by Maurice Smith during his military service from 1944 to 1945. Smith donated them to the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society (later the VHEC) in 1993.