SAAF and RAF aircraft losses in East Africa Campaign 1940-41

[Mitch Williamson]

Thank you all for your advice.

Mirek I quoted what I found on a SAAF website. I have also seen the number of Italian aircraft stated as 400.

Best Wishes
Mitch

[klemen]

Hi Stefaan!

For pure data the Springbok Victory is the best for East Africa. Problem is it has no index but I believe they are going to rectify that.

Thanks for the advice. I see this is only the first volume (Fighter Operations). Any words when would the second volume (Bomber Operations) come out?

We all moaned like hell.

Heheheh...

For Madagascar,Dust clouds is the best but that was written from a RAF perspective.

Already taken care of as well as the Vichy French side. I'm only missing some info about SAAF operations.

Gathering of Eagles if also very good if you want info and I used it for SAAF at War which is mainly pictorial.

Pictorial? But... But I thought this is supposed to be a kind of the unofficial SAAF history in World War II?! :?

A friend of mine is doing a 16 sqn History book which will feature Madagascar in depth.It is a few years from being finished.

This is good to hear. Keep us updated.

Comores was very small, limited to Recce flights as far as SAAF concerned. I don't see it even reflected in the index(just went to look)

Here is a quote from Osborne's Colonial War in Africa about the Comores Island in July 1942:

".... The British troops were landed on Mayotte Island at 3:00 a.m. on the morning of 2 July at Choa Bay, an undefended and isolated beach. They promptly marched on to occupy the radio station without incident. The Commandos and KAR men then surrounded the police barracks and captured most of the policemen while still in bed. At the same time, the Royal Marines secured the airfield. Both operations went off without incident. The town of Dzaudzi was easily captured and the governor, too, was captured in his bed [the story says together with a black mistress ]. The Chief of Police and two other French officials managed to flee in a car, but were later caught. By noon, it was all over. No one had been killed or wounded and none of the important installations blown up. Within a few days, British Navy patrol vessels and RAF seaplanes were operating out of Mayotte's harbor and land-based planes of the SAAF were operating from the airfield. Their primary mission was to conduct anti-submarine patrols ..."

It seems some airplanes of the SAAF were active from these islands.

lp,

Klemen

[stefaan]

Hi Klemen.
Sorry I never replied.Never got a notification of your reply.
If that is qouted it must be right.ptobably flew from Kenya or vicinity.
I don't know about whivh units but will try to find out
Stefaan

[Gielle]

I'd like also to add, not willing in this way underestimate the SAAF achievements, that the Fiat CR 42 could be considered a "modern" AC only under the year of construction respect.
If you consider that in 1940 were already flying AC such as the Bf 109 and the Spit, it gets hard to consider modern a biplane with fixed landing gear and a power max output of @ 850 HP.
It was fault of the Italian High Command to insist in a design which was surpassed by more modern technologies, when in 1939 ordered Fiat to produce the CR 42, maybe blinded by the great successes achieved during the Spanish Civil War by the CR 32, but tgime had changed, and great manouvrabilty wasn't anymore the key success in a dog fight.

You should also consider that the Italian East Africa was cut off from the mainland, and no supplies could be brought in, because obviously the Suez Canal was off limits for the Italian Navy, and the route around Africa was too long and risky.

[stefaan]

Gathering of Eagles if also very good if you want info and I used it for SAAF at War which is mainly pictorial.


Pictorial? But... But I thought this is supposed to be a kind of the unofficial SAAF history in World War II?!

Hi Klemen.
If you see the book you'll see that the history is illustrated with photographs.
Stefaan

[klemen]

Hi Stefaan!

Sorry I never replied.Never got a notification of your reply.
If that is qouted it must be right.ptobably flew from Kenya or vicinity.

From Mombasa and Malindi? Perhaps. There were some anti.submarine air units stationed there, so it is possible that they were trasnfered from there to the Comores to protect the Mozambique Channel.

I don't know about whivh units but will try to find out

Thank you Stefaan. I would appreciate that very much. I couldn't and still can't identify these air units on the Comores. I tried to do that by looking at the database of Diego Suarez cemetery, but all I could find is a couple SAAF air mechanics who were killed or died on Magadascar without the name of the unit. I hope you will have more luck.

If you see the book you'll see that the history is illustrated with photographs.

Aha, I understand. There was a small misunderstandment. I thought you think a pictorial book, what I of course understood as book full of photos and little text. More like a photo album, so to speak.

BTW: While we are already at this can you recommend which is the best book to describe the air and ground campaigns of the South African army on the Island of Magadascar during 1941-42?

lp,

Klemen

[stefaan]

Hi Klemen.

Sorry I took so long but I have a few guys trying to trace the Comores angle and this is what we found.
The Sqn in Madagascar was SAAF 16 sqn and some FAA sqns.
That is common knowledge.
About Comores.
They were Vichy French so for the SAAF to land there we would have had to invade them like Madagascar.So no units in the Comores.
What did happen is that 16 sqn had a forward covert strip at Pamanzi,
that was used to pick up downed FAA pilots.
This did occur but I do not know how many times.
You can probably find that in the history of the FAA units that lost a/c there.
I have not seen this reflected in our war diaries but have never looked at those units in depth.
My friend that is doing a 16 sqn book will probably get to that some time.
Stay tuned
Regards
Stefaan