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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0534.PDF
172 England, all volunteered, when the first German war broke out, to serve with the R.F.C. Under Captain Wallace, after some active service in France, they reached Walvis Bay on the last day of April, 1915, with three Henry Farmans and two B.E. 2cs. After that cam- paign, ended by an Armistice on July 6th, the unit pro- ceeded to Cape Town, where it was demobilised. Later that year, the unit having been again mobilised, 119 N.C.O.s and men sailed for England to join the officers who had returned there after the temporary disband- ment. Those who had served in South-West Africa were kept together by forming them, early in 1916, into No. 26 Squadron R.F.C. After additional training they were shipped to German East Africa. Arriving at Mombassa on January 31st, 1916, jvvith eight B.E. 2cs, they found the propellers which belonged to them had not been packed when they FEBRUARY 22, 1940 Manhandling a Fairey Battleinto its hangar at Water Kloof, Pretoria. left England. However, they had five unsuitable spares, and made them serve pending arrival of the right ones. This second African cam- paign continued until the beginning of 1918, when the Squadron left Zanzibar for Egypt in January, and was formally disbanded at Blandford in July. There- after the officers and men were absorbed into the R.A.F. and lost their iden- tity. They suffered the same fate, in this respect, as about 2,000 of their countrymen who were specially recruited in South Africa by Major Miller, D.S.O., O.B.E., in Octo- ber, 1917. South .Africa's Air Ace was Fit. Lt. Beauchamp- Proctor, who, with Lt.-Col. - Bishop (the Canadian), was the only other airman to win the Victoria Cross, D.S.O., M.C. and the D.F.C. His victories in- cluded 22 machines destroyed, 16 driven down out of control and 16 kite balloons destroyed. His country- man, Capt. McCubbin, piloted a machine in which a sergeant machine-gunned the gallant and redoubtable German pilot, Capt. Immelmann. This flyer, by a curious twist, was also a South African, and was educated at Cape Town. Fit. Lt. Kinkead, another South African, served in the R.N.A.S. before joining the R.A.F., in which he became a member of the Schneider Trophy team in 1927. As in the case of Ross and Keith Smith, the Australian war pilots who flew home and provided a post-war link for aviation, the South African link was forged by Pierre van Ryneveld and Quentin Brand, who left London in At the Rand Airport, Germiston. The aeroplanes are two Junkers Ju. 52s and an Airspeed Envoy.
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