The book
The Royal Air Force’s South African Airmen
A record of the South Africans who served in the RAF during the Second World War, written as "a humble reminder of our indebtedness to a generation we should never forget".
Getting a copy
The book is printed in small numbers and available from the author.
- ISBN
- 978-0-7961679-7-2
Contents
Chapters
Each chapter links to an extract on this site.
- A Natural Curiosity How one photograph led to a Lancaster mystery
- Hindsight and History Airfix Spitfires and fathers who kept quiet
- Tracing African Wings Finding the South Africans in the RAF
- Links of Long Standing How six young South Africans joined the RAF
- The First Ten Months Three South Africans in the Trondheim Skua raid
- Against Unfavourable Odds The court-martialled pilot who earned a DFM
- More than a “Few” South Africans The padre who went into the flooded hold
- The Dreaded Telegram The first telegrams sent to South African families
- Not at Home for Christmas The Great Escape and its South African victims
- The Airmen who started at Sea Catapulted off a merchant ship into Arctic waters
- SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons Ted Strever and the Italian seaplane
- A Different Kind of Enemy Flak The government that snubbed Sailor Malan’s funeral
- Spirits in the Sky South Africans overlooked at the Bomber Command Memorial
- A Journey of Discovery The author’s father, from Typhoons to Korea
About the author
Jon Eagar
Jon Eagar grew up on South African Air Force bases. His research began with his father's flying logbooks and a signed photograph taken in Montevideo in 1943.