Captain GW Hirschfield
- Rank
- Captain
- Squadron
- No 44 Squadron
- School
- St John's College
- 1943 voyage
- Sailed from Cape Town on the Rangitata in September 1943.
- Fate
- Killed in action, 5 December 1944
- In the book
- Pages 104, 127, 151
Stories that mention him
- South Africans overlooked at the Bomber Command MemorialSpirits in the Sky
From the book
The Dreaded Telegram
Four Bomber Command aircrew with South African connections lost their lives in early December 1944 after 12 Lancasters failed to return from the Heilbron Raid. Casualties included seconded SAAF pilots Captain GW Hirschfield and Lt PA Becker from the “Rangitata” group while 34 -year-old Rhodesian born NT Deacon whose father was South African and 19-year-old Adrian Ruyseh Roselt from Johannesburg 37 who were members of Becker’s crew, joined the RAFVR in Rhodesia.
SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons
No 44 Squadron had at least 38 South African born RAF airmen aircrew. Wing Commander JD Nettleton VC and the only seconded SAAF airman, St Johns College educated Captain GW Hirschfield were among 34 of those airmen who lost their lives. An isolated statistic, but an illustration of RAF Bomber Command’s high attrition rate.
Spirits in the Sky
55 573 of 125 000 Bomber Command aircrew lost their lives, 9 838 became “POW’s” and 8 403 were wounded. At least 300 South Africans served as Bomber Command airmen an estimated 176 of whom lost their lives. No 9 Squadron Wellington pilot, Pilot Officer Harold Rosofsky the first to lose his life and the last, No 139 Squadron Pathfinder Mosquito pilot, 23-year-old Flight Lt Robert Ogilvie Day DFC, were coincidently educated at King Edwards in Johannesburg and frame names like Begbie, Bartholomew, Deas, Goodman, Hamman, Hirschfield, Howe-Brown, Lourens, McKendry, McGregor, Wing Commander JD Nettleton VC and Major Edwin Swales VC DFC.