Lt JS Gous

Links of Long Standing

A thirteen-vote majority disallowed conscription, 44 570 of the estimated 342 700 South Africans who volunteered served in the South African Air Force17 and although a significant number of those airmen were educated at the country’s English medium schools, many Afrikaans speaking South Africans volunteered and as historian Hermann Giliomee points out, “Äfrikaners did not boycott the war as a Group” 18. General Smuts, for one, played a leading role, two notable South Africans who served in the RAF “Sailor” Malan and “Dutch” Hugo grew up in Afrikaans speaking homes, while Bultfontein High School educated Johannes Gous, a SAAF Stalag III “POW” murdered by the Gestapo, was initially turned down by the SAAF because his English was poor!

The Dreaded Telegram

There were ugly loss incidents including Japanese mistreatment of Allied “POW’s”, survivors from a sinking ship gunned down in the water, the Gestapo execution of 50 “Great Escape” airmen an incident involving South African born Squadron Leader Roger Bushell and SAAF pilots, Gous, McGarr and Stevens. 1

Not at Home for Christmas

Himmler’s “Sagan Order” 6 resulted in the Gestapo murdering 50 recaptured escapees including Squadron Leader Roger Bushell and SAAF airmen, Lt Johannes Gous from Bultfontein in the Orange free State, Lt Clement McGarr who is remembered on the “Roll of Honour” at Glenwood High School in Durban and SACS educated Lt Rupert Stevens. The three successful escapees were not Commonwealth airmen and aside from the South Africans, those brutally murdered included airmen from Australia, Britain, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, New Zealand and Norway.