PVT Harvey Polard Smith

courtesy of Frogman

PVT Harvey Polard Smith was born in 1917 in Appomattox County, Virginia. He was the 4th of 5 sons born to Harvey Napolean and Georgia Anna (Powell) Smith. The family farmed near Stonewall, Virginia. His 42-year old father died of pneumonia in February 1926.  Georgia soon remarried and the family moved to Gainesboro, Virginia where step-father Joseph Broughman and older brother Charlie Smith worked in a sand mine. Harvey moved to Roanoke County, Virginia and in 1935 he married Gladys Marie Bowman and adopted her 3-year old daughter. To support his family, Harvey became a truck driver, earning a reported 1939 income of just $300.

With a family to support the $1 a day drill pay was probably a big influence on Harvey's decision to enlist in the National Guard. He was a member of a local unit when the Virginia guard was federalized in February 1941. He would then train with the 116th Infantry at Fort Meade, Maryland, in the Carolina Maneuvers and at Camp Blanding, Florida before going with the unit to England aboard the Queen Mary in September 1942. Once in England he was assigned to and trained with A Company 116th Infantry for the planned amphibious landing that was a part of the effort to liberate Nazi occupied France. PVT Smith was killed in action in that landing on 6 Jun 1944.

PVT Smith rests forever in the Normandy American Cemetery.

Harvey's brother, Elwood B. Smith, also served during WW2. Also of note is that Harvey was a 3rd cousin of Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Thomas Doss.