PH Bosch

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”.