Sgt GB Callaghan

The Dreaded Telegram

Trevor Montague Brent and George Barry Callaghan were educated at Potchefstroom Boys High. Brent had 1820 Settler roots, Callaghan was born in Scotland in 1913 and 12 years old when his parents immigrated to South Africa. Brent qualified as an RAFVR Sgt Pilot in Rhodesia. Callaghan volunteered for SAAF service in 1940, trained at No 21 SFTS in Bulawayo and qualified as an RAFVR Sgt Pilot. They lost their lives during May 1942 serving on RAF Coastal Command Hudson squadrons.

The Dreaded Telegram

The January 27th, 1942, issue of “The London Gazette”,recorded RAFVR “Pilot Officer on probation” appointments for five South African pilots including Sgt George Barry Callaghan, all arrived in Scotland on the SS “Strathnaver” in late 1941 However, the issue dated July 10th 1942, terminated those and the commissions of five other South African pilots. Twenty -eight -year-old GB Callaghan, joined No 608 Squadron in Scotland in March 1942 and had flown anti-shipping operations and bombing raids along the Norwegian coast for just over two months when his Hudson failed to return from an operation on May 23rd, several weeks before the termination announcements.

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”.