“……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 temporarily by those authorities to His Majesty’s Royal Air Force”
General JC Smuts June 1941
The small Mediterranean island of Malta had been subjected to intensive Italian and German bombing from mid-1940 and by the time ET Strever, FO Noome, DP Tilley KC Kuhlman, CJO Swales and RJ Clements arrived in 1942, the island , close to submission to the German and Italian forces, was desparately short of fuel and food and, completely reliant on the Allied convoys delivering supplies being protected by the “Torpedo Bomber” and Spitfire squadrons aside from attacking ships along the Greek coastline carrying supplies for Rommel’s army.
An articled clerk when he volunteered for the SAAF, 22 -year- old Lt Edward Theodore Strever who was educated at The College of the Little Flower in Pietersburg, never envisaged sea travel to Glasgow. However, enroute to Ceylon some six months later, he and twenty other No 217 Squadron Beaufort “Torpedo Bombers” and their crews, landed at RAF Luqa on Malta in early June 1942 for a two -month stopover.
Tasked with Allied Convoy protection and attacks on shipping supplying Rommel’s Army, by July 28th No 217 Squadron had lost four aircraft and 16 aircrew. Lt Strever and his crew added to that number when they were shot down that day attacking a merchant ship. Able. They were however fortunately rescued by an Italian seaplane and flown to a base at Preveza after ditching their badly shot up Beaufort in the Mediterranean, some distance off the Greek Coast
From “SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons”, chapter 10 of Jon Eagar's book. About the book.