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Re: Why no Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika presentation squadrons in the RAF in WWII?
Hi Graham,
Nope, I checked that.
In mid war Kenya had 31,000 settlers, Tanganyika 17,000 and Uganda 3,000.
It is possible that as Tanganyika was technically a League of Nations Mandate, it could not be seen to be partisan. I know that its small naval unit could not be used outside its own waters for this reason.
The big mystery is Kenya, for which I can find no likely explanation. It was a wealthy colony (Hence the phrase "Kenya for the officers, Rhodesia for the other ranks".) After Southern Rhodesia, it had the second largest civil air fleet in the British African colonies and the only other air line. So the air mindedness, European settlers, finance and civil air resources were very probably available to underwrite a named RAF squadron and perhaps even to man it.
Cheers,
Sid.
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