John Urban Smith

In memoriam

Buried near this spot 48113 Private J.U. Smith 17th. August 1942 Age 34

Service Number: 48113 Unit: New Zealand Infantry, 25 Battalion Next Of Kin On Enlistment: Mrs M.E. Smith (mother), 33 Burrow Street, Bluff, Southland, New Zealand Occupation On Enlistment: Clerk Cause of Death: Died of wounds at Sea Onboard (S.S. Nino Bixio) somewhere between North Africa and Italy. Son of John Urban Smith and Margaret Euphemia Smith, of Bluff, Southland, New Zealand. "118 New Zealand prisoners of war died when the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean. Their deaths, combined with the 44 men lost on the Jantzen in December 1941, amounted to nearly a third of New Zealand's POW fatalities during the Second World War. The Nino Bixio was hit while transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. With another unmarked prison ship, the Sestriere, it had left Benghazi for Brindisi on 16 August, escorted by two destroyers and two torpedo boats. Crammed aboard the Nino Bixio were almost 3000 POWs captured in North Africa, including more than 160 New Zealanders.

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