[Sid Guttridge]

Hi paulmacmillan,

I suspect the seventh crated aircraft may have been the Tiger Moth SR7.

The Rapide SR8 was ferried in by air.

On their first tour of Rhodesia in September 1938, only five Harts were used. Perhaps the sixth was the instructional airframe you are looking for.

Regarding the three Gloster Gauntlets - We know they were promised in April 1939 and we know they were used for meteorological flights in WWII.

On top of this we know from p.62 of Pride of Eagles that the first job that six apprentices, who had just been trained by the RAF in the UK, were given on their return to Southern Rhodesia in October 1939 was to build crated aircraft. These presumably can only have been the Gloster Gauntlets (though the author mistakenly writes "Gloster Gladiators").

It is noticeable that your source Rhodesian Air Force: Sanctions Busters also gives the delivery dates for Audaxes SR15 and SR17 as October 1939.

My guess is that this identification is wrong and that SR15 to SR17 were originally the three Gloster Gauntlets and they soon received new serials (150 to 152) in the general reordering that saw the creation of SRAS.

To confuse the matter further, apparently the Rhodesians were originally promised six Audaxes, not the four or five known to have been received!

Cheers,

An ever more confused Sid.