Stories from the book
Each chapter of the book, introduced by a passage in Jon's own words.
A Natural Curiosity
A signed photograph of SAAF pilots, posted online, brought an enquiry from a Dutch researcher investigating a Lancaster crash. Helping him led to a second puzzle about an older bomber pilot from Durban.
“Discovery is the one way of finding answers.”
Anonymous
Hindsight and History
In the 1960s, boys built Airfix Spitfires and Lancasters while their fathers said little about the war. It contrasts that schoolboy glamour with the reality facing young bomber crews and their families.
“To live through a global war- in this context in the air- is to learn first-hand its meaning and consequences and thereby to be cured forever of “wanting…”
Laddie Lucas “Out of the Blue” April 1985.
Tracing African Wings
No single record lists the South Africans who served in the RAF. Starting from school rolls of honour, the research grew into a database of more than 1 900 names.
“When the first scent of war and adventure reached the Union, hundreds of South Africans began to pack their bags. There followed a minor great trek to…”
Arthur L Gavshon 1941.
Links of Long Standing
With few openings in the prewar SAAF, young South Africans made their own way into the RAF. The extract follows six of them, from enlistment to the regulation haircut and square bashing.
“Unlike artillery, an air fleet can conduct extensive operations far from, and independent of, both armies and navies. As far as can be foreseen, there is…”
The Smuts Report August 1917
The First Ten Months
In June 1940 fifteen Fleet Air Arm Skuas flew from HMS Ark Royal to attack the Scharnhorst at Trondheim. Three South African pilots took part, and each met a different fate.
“While few in Britain or Germany wanted a war, it is a historical fact that the mass of the people in both countries eventually tolerated one, and…”
The War Nobody Wanted Frederick Taylor 2018
Against Unfavourable Odds
Johannesburg pilot Thomas Young Wallace was court-martialled and demoted to sergeant in mid-1940. His Battle of Britain flying then earned him a Distinguished Flying Medal, where an officer would have received the DFC.
“By husbanding his resources in July, Dowding managed to increase his pilot strength to 1 434 at the beginning of August- helped by a contribution, on loan, of…”
BH Liddell Hart “Liddell Hart’s History of the Second World War”
More than a “Few” South Africans
Johannesburg-born RAF chaplain Herbert Cecil Pugh was aboard the troopship Anselm when German torpedoes struck in July 1941. The extract tells who he was and what he chose to do.
“The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Royal Air Force can win it. Therefore our supreme effort must be to gain overwhelming mastery of the air. The…”
Winston Churchill September 3rd, 1940
The Dreaded Telegram
Within weeks of war being declared, Air Ministry telegrams began reaching South African homes. The extract follows three of the first families to receive one, starting with the mother of Pilot Officer Harold Rosofsky.
“When many months had passed after our son, Ian, had been reported missing and we had to face the probability of not seeing him on earth again, my wife and I…”
JM Meiring Grey College Bloemfontein 1945
Not at Home for Christmas
On 24 March 1944, 76 prisoners escaped from Stalag Luft III through the tunnel Harry. The extract follows what happened next, including the fate of South African-born Roger Bushell and three SAAF airmen.
“Most airmen, and particularly those who arrived in Germany at the start of the war, came from the sort of backgrounds where comfort was taken for granted. Yet…”
Tim Carroll The Great Escapers 2004
The Airmen who started at Sea
Hurricanes fired off merchant ships had nowhere to land once the fight was over. In May 1942 former General Botha cadet Alistair Hay made one of these one-way flights to defend an Arctic convoy.
“Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”
Ernest Hemingway
SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons
Seconded SAAF pilot Ted Strever reached Malta in 1942 with a squadron of Beaufort torpedo bombers. In July his crew were shot down attacking a merchant ship and picked up by an Italian seaplane.
“……are hereby placed at the disposal of the service authorities of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the purpose of being attached…”
General JC Smuts June 1941
A Different Kind of Enemy Flak
Battle of Britain ace Sailor Malan died in 1963 after years of opposing the Nationalist government. The extract describes his final years and how the state treated his funeral.
“While Sailor was diving headlong at Nazi formations over Kent, Dr Malan was telling the House of Assembly that he expected Hitler would be kind, after he had…”
Oliver Walker “Sailor Malan” 1953
Spirits in the Sky
At least 300 South Africans flew with Bomber Command and an estimated 176 died. The extract names some of them and asks why South Africa had no visible place at the 2012 memorial unveiling.
“It's one of my greatest passions and one of the greatest achievements of my life……These very young, brave men sacrificed themselves, so we are able to live in a…”
Robin Gibb 2012
A Journey of Discovery
The author’s father, Larry Eagar, flew 100 Typhoon sorties on RAF secondment, earned the DFC, and later flew Mustangs in Korea. The extract traces a SAAF career of almost 35 years.
“The journey, Not the destination matters….”
TS Eliot