Pilot Officer J Bartholomew

The Dreaded Telegram

Pilot Officer John Bartholomew was one of several South Africans who lost their lives during Bomber Command’s “Battle of Berlin” between November 1943 and March 1944. Commissioned shortly before the November 25th, 1943, Frankfurt raid, his first No 97 Squadron Lancaster Pathfinder sortie, an unlucky 13th ended after the February 21st Stuttgart Raid when their damaged Lancaster crashed short of the runway leaving no survivors.26 The Air Ministry Telegram delivered to William and Margaret Bartholomew’s Rosebank home in Cape Town was final, “Regret to inform you that your son Pilot Officer John Bartholomew lost his life as a result of an aircraft accident returning from operations against Germany”. His “Distinguished Flying Cross” award announced in “The London Gazette” on May 23rd, 1944, included “since deceased”, but an award earned by very few South Africans in the RAF who were not pilots

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.