Flight Lt AJ Hay

Against Unfavourable Odds

Stapleton volunteered for the “Merchant Ship Fighter Unit” at RAF Speke in Liverpool flying adapted Hurricanes off Merchant Ships, with former “General Botha” Cadet, Flight Lt AJ Hay. Captured after a forced Hawker Typhoon landing in 1944, Stapleton spent five months as a “POW”. He joined BOAC as a pilot after the war, “returned” to South Africa for over forty years, relocated to England in 1994 and died in 2010.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Cadet No 928 Alastair James Hay joined the “General Botha” in 1937 at the same time as DCJ McKendry. Commissioned in 1940, Pilot Officer Hay volunteered for the RAF’s “Merchant Ship Fighter Unit” in 1941 and had no operational experience.

The Airmen who started at Sea

The Merchant Ship Fighter Unit was formed at RAF Speke Liverpool in May 1941 with volunteer RAF pilots. Catapult aircraft merchant ships (CAMS) carried up to two pilots and five RAF ground crew. Twelve CAMS were sunk, and 8 Hurricanes launched in a 21-month period. This photograph was taken a few weeks after AJ Hay had shot down two Heinkel’s. Neither of these pilots on the SS Empire Tide were launched and this was the last merchant ship used for a launch in July 1943.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Alistair Hay joined a very select group on May 27th,1942 when he was catapulted off “HMS Empire Lawrence”. He destroyed a Heinkel, damaged another but wounded, ditched into icy Arctic waters not helped by a punctured dingy or attention the convoy was receiving from enemy aircraft. Hay was plucked out of the freezing waters in dangerous conditions by “HMS Volunteer” crew members, a destroyer under command of another former “General Botha” Cadet Lt Commander AS Pomeroy DSC. “HMS Empire Lawrence”, one of six convoy merchant ships lost that day, sunk while Hay was being rescued. The June 23rd “London Gazette” announcement of his “Distinguished Flying Cross” included a detailed citation.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Flight Lt Hay lost his life “flying in Typhoon 1B JP247 of No 182 Sqn which was shot down by flak near Falaise” on August 18th 1944. The squadron’s South African commanding officer Major DH “Dormie” Barlow who had held that position since April having previously commanded No 80 Squadron in Italy, had been captured by the Germans after being shot down three weeks earlier while two other South Africans serving on the “Second Tactical Air Force” squadron were killed in quick succession. Seconded SAAF pilots Captain GH Kaufmann DFC and Lt RG Jennings were coincidentally from the Eastern Cape and educated at Dale College. Twenty-five-year-old Kaufmann had been with the squadron for six weeks when he lost his life on July 18th while 20-year-old Jennings killed a day after AJ Hay having been with the squadron for two weeks, had travelled to England on the “Rangitata with former “General Botha” Cadets SH Capstick-Dale who was killed in a Typhoon flying accident in 1944 and, Captain Martin Overed.