Wing Commander WI Deas “Bill”

Links of Long Standing

The SAAF Development Programme’s prewar demise influenced many young South Africans including WI Deas, PG Dexter, GJ Drake, J Falkson, AC Hamman, PH Hugo, O Hume, J Ing, AG Lewis, N Lewis, LA Lynn, Spencer Peacock -Edwards, SR Whiting and GM Wright while 26-year-old Michaelhouse educated Guy Paul Wentworth Austin arrived in England on the day war was declared, commissioned as an “acting Pilot on probation” in January 1940 and lost his life 10 months later in a No 9 Squadron Wellington shot down over Germany.

Links of Long Standing

Twenty-five– year- old Pretoria Boys High educated William Inglis Deas and Michaelhouse educated Spencer Whiting who was eighteen, commissioned a few weeks apart in October and November 1940 after Bill Deas’s uncle, Brigadier Kenneth van der Spuy who was Military Attache at the time had enabled their joining the RAF.

Links of Long Standing

Lionel Leon, educated at King Edwards volunteered from America when war was declared and had just turned twenty when he commissioned in November. Harte was a Royal Air Force Reserve Flying Officer while Austin, Dawson-Squibb, Deas, Leon and Whiting would have received standard notifications after their Recruiting Office “Air Crew Selection Board” interviews, “You will be taken on strength from the date you report for duty and will also be issued with uniforms etc. as soon as possible thereafter. You should therefore bring with you the minimum of personal requirements” which translated as arriving at their designated “Receiving Wing”, a 90 second regulation haircut, health check, identity documentation issue and a few weeks of “square bashing”.

The Dreaded Telegram

Pretoria Boys High educated William “Bill” Inglis Deas apparently met Spencer Whiting who was at Michaelhouse in London and they commissioned a few weeks apart in late 1940 having apparently joined the RAFVR with assistance from South Africa’s Military Attache,Brigadier, later General Kenneth van der Spuy, who was Bill Deas’s uncle.

The Dreaded Telegram

A year later, Pilot Officer Deas, a No 61 Squadron Hampden pilot, had been awarded the “Distinguished Flying Cross”, by April 1943, acting Squadron Leader Deas was flying Lancaster’s and had earned a “Bar” to his award. Six South Africans, Cundill, Hermon 30, Beattie, Briggs, Miller and Woodvine lost their lives serving with the Squadron.

The Dreaded Telegram

Twenty-nine-year-old Wing Commander WI Deas DFC and Bar Deas had completed two tours when he took command of No 630 Squadron in February 1944. The squadron had lost 33 Lancaster’s by July and he had signed over 200 “next of kin” letters. Deas lost his life on July 7th acting as “Master Bomber” on his 74th sortie targeting a flying-bomb storage site. Thirty-two Lancaster’s failed to return, 140 airmen lost their lives. His aircraft, the only squadron loss, Flying Officer Upton the single survivor from his crew became a Stalag III “POW” 29.

The Dreaded Telegram

William and Grace Deas received an Air Ministry telegram at their Piet Retief home in South Africa’s Eastern Transvaal on July 9th advising their son was “Missing”. His death confirmed before they learnt of his “Distinguished Service Order” award.

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.