![]() ![]() Johnny qualified as a barrister in London, before returning to Freetown where he would go on to become Queen’s Counsel and Sierra Leone’s attorney general, before then setting up his own legal practice. His work with the Colonial Office continued and after winning a court martial case defending a demobilised man from the RAF, despite having had no prior legal training, the presiding judge gave Johnny a letter of introduction to the Inns of Court. He explained what going back to the UK would mean, the mean aboard agreed and after informing the Colonial Office the Empire Windrush made its way back to the UK. Johnny, with the help of the Windrush crew, interviewed each of the men aboard to learn about their skills and qualifications. The Colonial Office told Johnny that as senior officer he should come up with a plan. On arrival in Jamaica, they were told that the economy was struggling and that the returning men would have a hard time, so could the ship take the men back to Britain. In 1948 he was deployed as a senior officer on a captured German troop ship, which had been renamed the Empire Windrush, and which had been tasked with taking former military personnel back to their homes in the Caribbean. Johnny returned to London and was offered a post with the Colonial Office looking after the welfare of demobilised airmen from the Caribbean and Africa. The German’s had fled at news that the Russian Army was approaching. Johnny would remain a prisoner until 1945 when one morning the inmates woke to find that all the guards were gone. Johnny refused, but fortunately it turned out to be a bluff and he was transferred to Stalag Luft I, a prisoner-of-war camp in northern Germany that would be his home for the next 18 months. More questioning followed for Johnny at a centre in Frankfurt, where he was threatened with execution if he didn’t co-operate. Johnny replied that “Sierra Leone is part of the British Empire and I’m fighting for my king”. While in hospital Johnny was questioned by injured German airmen about why he was fighting a war in Europe. Military police intervened and took Smythe away for questioning, where he was beaten once more during his interrogation before being transported to hospital to be treated for his shrapnel wounds. Only later after Johnny had learned a little German did he understand that the officers had been saying ‘ Let’s kill him`. Johnny was taken to the local German police station where one officer kept hitting him with the butt of his rifle in the ribs where he’d been shot. ![]() But despite an attempted escape on a stolen bicycle and hiding in a barn he was forced to give himself up after German soldiers began firing on the barn. Johnny jumped out of the burning plane, hiding his parachute when he landed and trying to find somewhere to hide. Unable to get away they were shot down by a German fighter plan. The crew managed to drop their bombs, but their aircraft had become an easy target. One engine exploded and Smythe was struck twice, in his side and groin. ![]() On the 18 November 1943 as his plane approached Berlin it was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The life expectancy of RAF bomber crews was alarmingly low. The flights would take him over the English Channel, France, and Germany, and were always high risk. Assigned as a navigator with 623 Squadron, Johnny flew 26 missions as a Short Stirling bomber crew member. He was selected to train as a navigator, due to his high scores on mathematics tests.
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