“The journey, Not the destination matters….”
TS Eliot
Educated at King Edwards, my father volunteered for the SAAF in 1940, started flying training in 1941 and was posted to No 6 Squadron from 24 Air School in March 1942, flying Harvard’s, Mohawks, Masters, and Fury’s. The squadron, non- operational, his RAF secondment in 1943 voluntary, and by December, having arrived in Liverpool a few weeks earlier, he had been assigned to an “Advanced Flying Unit” to train on fighters.
Operational flying with the Second Tactical Air Force’s No’s 183 and 164 Squadrons involved 100 Hawker Typhoon sorties, and he was serving with No 164 Squadron when his “Distinguished Flying Cross” award was gazetted.
Accepted for a permanent SAAF commission after the war, it is unclear whether he considered options other than the SAAF but aside from a passive and unexciting immediate post war environment and flying aircraft like Tiger Moths, Harvard’s, and Ventura’s, political intrusion caused discomfort for many war veterans. Volunteering for the Korean War, a diversion, attracted many veterans and several younger pilots and,required operational training on Spitfires at Air Force Base Langebaanweg.
My father flew his first P51 Mustang Korean sortie in No 334 on June 10th 1951, two weeks later he and three others including 21- year old John Howe attacked a heavily defended troop location described in Bob Cossey’s book on Air Vice Marshal Howe , “ I’ll forever recall with minute detail the most spectacular feat I’ve ever lived to witness and tell about …..we saw four silvery streaks plummet from the skies with guns blazing ….the Hall of Fame does not possess any greater men than those who flew that day” , resulting in the immediate award of an “Air Medal” .He earned two further “Air Medals”, the American “Distinguished Flying Cross” and was one of a small group decorated by the Korean Government.
Almost 35 years of SAAF service included flying the last Spitfires before their 1954 grounding, the first South African based SAAF supersonic Sabre aircraft in 1956, the SAAF’s first Canberra jet bombers and being the first senior SAAF officer based in Rundu at the beginning of the Bush War.
From “A Journey of Discovery”, the closing chapter of Jon Eagar's book. About the book.