Page 272 - Airpower in 20th Century - Doctrines and Employment

272 airpower in 20 Century doCtrines and employment - national experienCes
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new entity was created as the Air Services of the Union of South Africa Defence
Force on 1 February 1920 after Britain donated about 100 First World War vintage
aircraft (including 48 DH9s, 30 Avro 504s and 22 SE5s) with workshop machinery
and spare parts, to South Africa. Consequently Pierre van Ryneveld (later General
Sir Pierre Van Ryneveld) was appointed at its head as Director Air Services and the
4
service was listed as a Permanent Force unit on 1 February 1923. Van Reyneveld
had an outstanding career in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, was
well respected as a leader and, amongst others, saw deployment in Egypt, Palestine
and Salonika before commanding 78 Squadron (Home Defence) in Britain, one of
th
the first night-fighter units, as well as the 11 Army Wing.
Sadly, the new air force’s first operational experience was internally as it was used
against striking gold miners on the Witwatersrand in 1922. When the strikes turned
violent, General Jan Smuts (South African Prime Minister) declared martial law and
used the air force to bomb the miners’ positions. Two aircraft were shot down (killing
two crew members and injuring two others). Shortly afterwards (in 1922, 1925 and
1932) it also played an important part in suppressing ethnic rebellions in the former
German Southwest Africa (currently Namibia). Amongst these clashes was the infa-
mous crushing of the Bondelswarts revolt in southern Namibia, which led to internal
and international criticism for the Smuts government.
In the next challenge the SAAF had to face it came of second best. In line with
the global depression of the time its budget was severely slashed in the early 1930s,
which resulted in a substantial scaling down. However, as the maintenance of an
air force was still regarded as important to South Africa, some progress still took
place. Pilots were kept active (by even doing crop spraying) and a Central Flying
School was established at Zwartkop in 1932 which was the beginning of long pro-
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fessional tradition. After the economic recovery in 1936 government approved the
creation of a reserve of 1000 pilots and 1700 mechanics to be trained over the next
six years, while new bases were created in Bloemspruit, Durban, Waterkloof and
Cape Town. 6

The Second World War and its aftermath

The Second World War caught the SAAF by surprise. At its outbreak it had a
mere 1500 men. Though it had 104 aircraft, only eight of these (six Hurricanes, one
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Fairy Battle bomber and one Blenheim bomber) were up to date. These shortcom-
ings were quickly addressed and top priority was given to training and equipment.
At the war’s height in 1944 SAAF was at a peak with 45 000 members (including

4
L. Steyn, A short history of the South African Air Force, 1920-2010, Unpublished brief history,
SAAF Museum, Pretoria, 2010, p. 1.
5
H. Heitman, Die Suid-Afrikaanse Krygsmag, CNA, Johannesburg, 2001, p. 53.
6
Ibid.
7
P. Moorcraft, Africa’s Super Power, Sygma/Collins, Johannesburg, 1981, p. 134.