Brigadier Eric David "Birdie" Smith CBE DSO (19 August 1923 – 7 March 1998) was a senior British Army officer and military historian who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, for leadership and gallantry on 3 September 1944, whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion, the 7th Gurkha Rifles in Italy, during the Second World War.

[1] He joined the Indian Army in 1941 and following attendance at the Officer Training Unit at Bangalore was commissioned and posted to the 7th Gurkha Rifles in 1942.

[2] Later in the Italian campaign, at midnight on 3 September 1944, Smith led Letter C company, 2nd Battalion, the 7th Gurkha Rifles in the attack on Tavoleto, on the Gothic Line, which was heavily defended.

Smith although wounded in the leg, killed all the occupants of the first Spandau post encountered with grenades and machine-gun fire; he continued to lead his company which during the fierce fighting was reduced from approximately 100 men to 28 and successfully cleared the village.

[3] The Journey made on a Wessex helicopter commenced at Sibu, Sarawak, and the destination was a forward company base operating north of the Indonesian border.

[4][3] Following the crash, to free him from the wreckage, his right arm was amputated by the battalion's medical officer Captain, later Major-General Patrick Crawford using an Army clasp knife.