Lt FL Higgins

The Dreaded Telegram

Three “Rangitata” airmen lost their lives in April. Twenty-six-year-old Lt Emile Van Heerden a No 515 Mosquito pilot from Carnarvon in the northern Cape lost his life on the 2nd, No 174 Squadron Typhoon pilot Lt Frederick Higgins was killed on the 3rd and Captain Martin Overed on the 19th, both 20 years old.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Several participated in the BBC Africa shortwave’s weekly programme “Song time in the Laager” broadcast from London. The airmen in the top image from the left, McGregor, Begbie, Howes, Eagar all former King Edwards pupils in Johannesburg sailed on the “Rangitata” with another former pupil all of whom signed the mounting. That photograph and two others including Lt’s IF Watson, Meyer, Higgins and Quick from the Transvaal appeared in an English magazine in May 1944. 2nd Lt Tony Collett and Naval servicemen in the bottom image were from the Eastern Cape.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

The Montevideo photograph of the seconded SAAF airmen tells a story of its own. Twenty-three of those airmen including Begbie, Carby Thompson, Collett, Gale, Higgins, Jennings, Lens, McGregor, Swales and Wright all of whom signed the mounting lost their lives.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Those “contributions” carried a high price tag as 35 of the airmen on the “unofficial list” of 92 lost their lives between January 1944 and April 1945. The first, 20-year-old 2nd Lt James Mitchell Wright was killed in a January 1944 training accident, Lt FL Higgins, the last, lost his life in No 174 Squadron Typhoon in April 1945 and were among 23 airmen in the “Rangitata” group photograph who are thought to have lost their lives.