The Kalahari Killings
Page 19
A measure of Rre Molatlhwe’s humility is that when we were talking to him over tea and scones in the staffroom he was much prouder of the actions of his grandfather. Molatlhwe senior had been captured by a party of Mzilikazi’s Zulu warriors yet, with the son of a local chief, had engineered his escape. To this wonderful old soldier, this was a much more exciting story than anything that he had done.
RATG
At the end of the Second World War the Rhodesian Air Training Group continued to operate, but at a much reduced rate. An administrative re-organisation was undertaken at the start of 1946 and a more serious one in December. The latter saw the organisation lose its Group status, being downgraded to the Rhodesian Air Training Wing. The following year saw the re-birth of the Southern Rhodesian Air Force which took over some of the RAF facilities as well as some ex-RAF aircraft. These included Spitfire Mk 22s, which would soon be joined by jet Vampires.
With increased tensions between the old allies and the start of the Cold War, the RAF realised that it would again be short of trained personnel and it was decided to return the Rhodesian operation to full Group status. Although it never reached the numbers it had enjoyed during the war, the mistrust in Europe and its consequences, such as the Korean War, meant that once again African skies were filled with prospective Royal Air Force pilots who would rarely return to the continent once their training was complete. However, this renaissance could not last as the United Kingdom was effectively bankrupt. The British Government was closing down Flying Training Schools in the UK and, despite the benefits of the weather in Rhodesia, it was impossible to justify the RATG’s continuing operation. The final RAF ‘wings’ parade was held at the end of October 1953 and by March the following year the last British personnel and equipment had been shipped home.
Even with the ending of RAF training a close relationship was maintained between the two air forces. The extent of this relationship can be gauged by the fact that single examples of Britain’s nuclear deterrent were sometimes deployed to Salisbury. The flights, known as ‘Lone Rangers’, were used by the RAF to test the ability of its Vulcan and Victor crews to operate self-sufficiently far from home. In 1964, Rhodesia was visited by the third of the V-bombers, the Vickers Valiant, in order to map parts of Rhodesia and Bechuanaland. The three photographic aircraft from 543 Squadron spent eleven weeks mapping an area roughly the size of France, Germany and England combined. Echoing the experiences of the wartime comrades, the crews found Rhodesia to have ‘better food, better beer, better weather and friendlier people’. The nightlife was described as ‘demanding’. Even with these massive state-of-the-art machines, flights still took off at dawn to avoid the rough air and, even with the latest radar and electronic aids, navigation of the featureless bush was still tricky. In an age of GPS, where accurate navigation is taken for granted, these reconnaissance flights demonstrated the problems Gordon and Walter faced using their old maps. The best example of this was the fact that Kariba Dam’s official position was moved by more than three miles following the 1964 survey flights.
Rhodesia’s drift away from the United Kingdom’s vision of the future for Africa came to a sudden head with Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. This brought to an end formal links between the two air forces. Indeed, the RAF was soon involved in an operation against its former ally. The British Government erected radio aerials on top of Nyangabgwe Hill in Francistown to transmit propaganda into its rebellious colony and was worried about their vulnerability to ground attack. RAF Argosy transports, including the example preserved at the RAF Museum at Cosford, were used to ferry in the radio equipment and also two companies of Welsh Fusiliers to protect the transmission centre. This caused tension between the pro-Smith whites in Francistown and the local population.
With Botswana gaining independence in 1966, giving hope to those wanting to see majority rule in Rhodesia, tensions were high between the two countries for the next sixteen years. Regular incursions by Rhodesian forces were one of the main reasons behind Botswana’s decision to create the Botswana Defence Force in 1977. Soon afterwards, fifteen BDF soldiers were killed by a Rhodesian Army ambush inside Botswana. In 1979 a Botswana Defence Force Defender, a light transport aircraft, was shot down while it was supporting BDF troops reacting to a Rhodesian Special Forces operation near Francistown. Although the Defender managed to make a forced landing at Francistown, it marked the Rhodesian Air Force’s last ‘kill’. For a country that had done so much to help defeat the evil of Hitler, and whose sacrifices were at that time still remembered in the form of the Vulcans of No. 44 ‘Rhodesian’ Squadron RAF, this was a sad ending. Within three years it would become the Air Force of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Today, RAF Kumalo is a Zimbabwean Army barracks, with many of the old air force buildings at the entrance of the camp still in use. The runway has been largely reclaimed by the bush. The same applies to the rest of the old airfield, much of it being hidden by head-high grass. The RATG is remembered at the Zimbabwe Air Force museum at Gweru (Gwelo until 1982). Here the story of the more than 10,000 pilots who trained in Southern Rhodesia is told in a couple of ageing cabinet displays. A North American Harvard and a Tiger Moth both proudly wear the green and yellow bars of the SRAF either side of RAF-style roundels. Sadly, like much of Zimbabwe the museum currently looks a little unloved. Perhaps understandably, the aircraft used against the black resistance movement seem to receive the least care, with a Hawker Hunter slowly rusting away in a hanger. No doubt if Gordon Edwards had had the chance to visit today, it would be the dilapidated Spitfire that would have drawn his attention, taking him back to his teenage dreams of flying one and the memory of getting close to such a magnificent machine for the first time on a lonely Scottish airfield.
GORDON’S FIANCÉE
During Gordon’s visits home he developed a very close friendship with a local girl. In common with many servicemen, it must have been a challenge for him to maintain this bond given his overseas postings. Gordon was a keen letter writer though, and no doubt this helped the relationship blossom.
Gordon proposed to his girlfriend but, like his decision to join up, he kept this from his domineering mother. It can only be imagined how his lover was counting down the days until Gordon’s training was over and how she must have hoped that he would be sent back to the United Kingdom when he had finished in Rhodesia. When the news of Gordon’s disappearance arrived she would have had to rely on Gordon’s sister, Muriel, for information as she was not formally part of the family yet. Certainly Sarah, Gordon’s mother, was too wrapped up in her own devastation to offer any support or consolation.
Gordon’s fiancée, like Sarah, never fully recovered from her loss. One would like to think that this was some measure of Gordon’s personality; he seems to have been popular with, and loved by, all those that knew him. Gordon stayed in her heart and she never married.
THE HURRICANE
OF THE LAKE
Almost exactly sixty years after the murder trial, a direct link to Gordon Edwards emerged from a Russian lake.
Hawker Hurricane Z5252 was one of the crated fighters that had accompanied Gordon’s convoy to Russia in 1941 before being assembled by the airmen of 151 Wing. It was the aircraft test flown on 25 September by Major General A.A. Kuznetsov, who was the Commanding Officer, Naval Air Forces, Soviet Northern Fleet. Kuznetsov was an experienced pilot, with many thousands of flying hours, and to mark the occasion Z5252 lost its RAF ‘targets’, gained red stars and the bort number 01, signifying the first British aircraft to be handed over to the Russians. Initially, Kuznetsov kept Z5252 as his personal mount. However, having first been transferred to a staff flight, Z5252 found itself in the front line within six months.
On 2 June 1942, Z5252 was one of seven Hurricanes involved in a dogfight with a dozen Bf 109s. Hit by four cannon rounds, the pilot, Lt Markov, was forced to make a belly landing on a frozen lake near Murmansk. Fortunately, the weather was still very cold, despite being June
, and the ice supported the damaged aeroplane, allowing Markov to make good his escape. He was back with his unit before sunset, where he reported that his aircraft was in reasonable condition and should be recovered. However, when the salvage crew arrived at the lake there was no sign of the Hurricane, which had eventually proved too much for the summer ice. It had sunk to the bottom.
There the Hurricane lay in peace for sixty years, until a search was made for it. This took longer than expected due to the fact that nobody was really sure which of the many lakes it was at the bottom of. Eventually, in August 2003, it was discovered 18 metres down on a bed of moss, amazingly with its canvas intact and the serial number still visible. A year later it was brought to the surface.
With a little luck, this Hurricane will be restored and will serve as a memorial to all those who lost their lives and, perhaps, especially to a young man from Wales who helped to assemble it before being murdered on the other side of the world.
Front cover image: © IWM
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First published in 2015
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