Lt JE Begbie

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

Whereas seconded bomber pilots may have been in the minority, that small group acquitted themselves very well. Eight flew No 102 Squadron Halifax bombers. Three, Begbie, Carby Thompson and Heiden lost their lives. Major’s Gillett and Watson and Captains Meyer and Rea were awarded the “Distinguished Flying Cross”.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Lt’s DH Thomas and Errol Begbie, two other signatures on the photograph mounting, were involved in “friendly fire” incidents. Begbie a No 102 Squadron Halifax pilot lost his life during a Dusseldorf raid in early November 1944 after his aircraft was hit by friendly fire and then shot down by a JU88. Thomas, attacked by a USAAF P51 Mustang and forced to bale out of his No 602 Spitfire was a fortunate survivor. Volume 3 of Norman LR Franks “Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War” identifies that at least 12 pilots were killed by friendly fire between “D-Day” and the end of the war, USAAF pilots shot down at least 15 RAF fighters and collisions caused several casualties.

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.