Lt Colonel ET Strever “Ted”

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Many of the first 32 SAAF pilots seconded for RAF service in Britain who sailed from Cape Town on the “SS Strathnaver and arrived in Glasgow in early December 1941 had been on an early “Empire Air Training Scheme” course and experienced the SAAF’s illogical insistence that they be awarded RAF wings, rank, uniforms before remustering as SAAF pilots prior to secondment. That group included A Bartlemann, BR Bennetts, PH Bosch, GB Callaghan, EG Catton, RJ Clements, NA Freeman, WD Forsmann, C Heydenrich, AE Hounsom, AV Johnson, KC Kuhlman, AD Morum, CV Nissen, FO Noome, WR Roberts, AC Rowe, CC Steyn, ET Strever, CJO Swales and DP Tilley. Bosch, Freeman, Morum Steyn, Noome and Nissen did not survive the war, Heydenrich, Clements and Kuhlman became “POW’s”.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

The small Mediterranean island of Malta had been subjected to intensive Italian and German bombing from mid-1940 and by the time ET Strever, FO Noome, DP Tilley KC Kuhlman, CJO Swales and RJ Clements arrived in 1942, the island, close to submission to the German and Italian forces, was desparately short of fuel and food and, completely reliant on the Allied convoys delivering supplies being protected by the “Torpedo Bomber” and Spitfire squadrons aside from attacking ships along the Greek coastline carrying supplies for Rommel’s army.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

An articled clerk when he volunteered for the SAAF, 22 -year- old Lt Edward Theodore Strever who was educated at The College of the Little Flower in Pietersburg, never envisaged sea travel to Glasgow. However, enroute to Ceylon some six months later, he and twenty other No 217 Squadron Beaufort “Torpedo Bombers” and their crews, landed at RAF Luqa on Malta in early June 1942 for a two -month stopover.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Tasked with Allied Convoy protection and attacks on shipping supplying Rommel’s Army, by July 28th No 217 Squadron had lost four aircraft and 16 aircrew. Lt Strever and his crew added to that number when they were shot down that day attacking a merchant ship. Able. They were however fortunately rescued by an Italian seaplane and flown to a base at Preveza after ditching their badly shot up Beaufort in the Mediterranean, some distance off the Greek Coast

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Posted “Missing”, they took off as “POW’s” in a similar aircraft early the next morning having enjoyed overnight Italian hospitality bound for Taranto some 420 km west of Preveza for internment. However, Strever and his crew overpowered the Italians shortly after becoming airborne and took control of the unfamiliar three engine aircraft. Despite the strange instruments, no maps and an uncooperative Italian crew, they headed in a south westerly direction towards the Italian coastline and Malta, a sea distance of 650 km from Preveza. Short on fuel, their nerve-wracking flight, most of which was at wave top height, ended several hours later under fire from Malta based Spitfires with a water landing not far from the island.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

The Italians became the “POW’s”, the seaplane a captured trophy. Lt Strever and his crew were a in Ceylon when a very bland September 4th,1942,“London Gazette” citation announced his and the co-pilots “Distinguished Flying Cross” and “Distinguished Flying Medal” awards to the two Sergeant aircrew members masking a unique incident.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Strever, appointed to command No 211 Squadron flying Beaufighters two years later, was badly injured flying as a passenger in an aircraft crash. He ended the war as a Lt Colonel commanding No 27 Squadron, an RAF jungle air rescue unit in Burma. Lt Colonel Strever DFC one of if not the SAAF’s longest serving RAF secondment, died in South Africa in 1997.