Name/Title
1945/Chalmers: Rhodesia & the RAFDescription
In proportion to its size, Rhodesia contributed more manpower to the Allied war effort in the Second World War than any other British dominion or colony.
As regards the RAF, Rhodesia not only trained its own countrymen but also servicemen sent from Britain to take advantage of the better climate under the Empire Air Training Scheme. This scheme was:
"the result of an initiative by Sir Charles Meredith who commanded Southern Rhodesia’s small pre-war air force. He persuaded the Air Ministry in London that Southern Rhodesia would be an ideal place for training RAF flying crews on a large scale. It was remote from hostilities, intensely loyal, and had the perfect climate. Planes are scarcely ever grounded because of bad weather. Southern Rhodesia thus became the first country in which the great Empire Training Scheme was launched, beating Canada by a short head when the first air school was opened at Belvedere, Salisbury in 1940.
Altogether, eleven air stations were built, with concomitant runways, quarters, townships for families, and all the ancillary water and electricity supplies, etc. It was a major effort. At the peak of the operation over 15,000 Europeans were involved."
"A History of Rhodesia", Robert Blake (Eyre Methuen, London, 1977).
________________________________________________________________________
This booklet is about the Southern Rhodesia (later simply Rhodesia) Training Group of the Empire Air Training Scheme, how it was formed, what its training and living conditions were, and how it supplied aircrews to the RAF, Rhodesian, and Allied squadrons.
All Rhodesian Air Force aircrew were volunteers. One such was Lionel Boyton, whose career as a Lancaster air gunner was cut short by a life-threatening illness. He enlisted in Salisbury on 6 January 1942, and before his illness served in 1943 on 97 Squadron, a Pathfinder squadron based at Bourn, Cambridgeshire, the same squadron as Peter Mack.
One highly notable bomber squadron in RAF Bomber Command was 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron. John Nettleton, its commander in April 1942, won a VC for his part in the Augsburg raid of that month. 97 Squadron also took part in the raid.
-____________________________________
* Jack Powell, the navigator on Peter Mack's crew who was killed in the air crash in December 1943, trained in South Africa under the Empire Air Training Scheme.
