Frederick E. Smith

Frederick Escreet Smith (4 April 1919 – 15 May 2012) was a British author, best known for his 1956 novel 633 Squadron about a Second World War RAF Mosquito squadron undertaking a seemingly impossible mission to bomb a well-protected German factory at the head of a Norwegian fjord. The novel was made into a successful film in 1964. He also wrote the original 1951 story that the film Devil Doll (1964) is based on. Two volumes of autobiography, A Youthful Absurdity and An Author's Absurdities, were published in 2011 and 2012, with a further volume The Final Absurdities scheduled to follow in November 2012. The books chart his early experiences in the RAF and in South Africa, marriage to his wife Shelagh, and his experiences as a full-time author.