South African's in RFC in East Africa

[Guy Ellis]

Thank you to Alanlw for the link to my article on 26 Sqdn - it is down at the moment

Alan please can you contact me re the photos you have

Thanks

www.historyjournal.co.uk

alanlw

[alanlw]

Here's another:

Any ideas on type of plane?

Alan

As you probably know, it's a BE2c, the workhorse of the RFC on the minor fronts after it was unsuitable for operations over France and Flanders. No 26 Sqn operated the type - together with some Farman F.27 'pushers' - from January 1916 until January 1918. The aeroplane in the photographs has been re-doped, or re-covered and re-doped, and the national markings omitted, as they would have been redundant in that theatre.

Regards

Gareth

Having just been to The National Archives and read the squadron war diaries I think this was probably BE2c 4349. This photo was taken by Brocklehurst who survived the crash and there are no reports of him going into hospital. Attach war diary extract from September 1917.

[Guest geoff.harris]

I just found this old thread and can add a couple os photos of 2nd Lt F.H. Dear who was in Sq 26 (SA) in 2017.

First in his plane

Second he is in his vest

 

[MaureenE]

There is also the following article online

 

"26-Eskader R.F.C". No author shown but catalogued Abel Esterhuyse (possibly the editor?) however elsewhere stated to be by Jan Ploeger. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies - Vol 2, No 1 (1970), pages 68-87. African Journals Online (AJOL). Text in Afrikaans, with some English, including tables, and a Summary in English. "In reality", it was a "British squadron".

 

To those in areas such as North America  Flying and Sport in East Africa, by Leo Walmsley 1920 is available online Hathi Trust Digital Library  and probably Google Books.

Extracts are also available online

"An Airman’s Experiences in East Africa" by Leo Walmsley. Blackwood’s Magazine, no 206-207 July 1919-June 1920 Archive.org. Page 633, page 788, page 53, page 189. 

 

Cheers

Maureen

[alanlw]

I was sent the following by a member of the Leo Walmsley Society some years back:

 

Flying & Sport v Blackwood

'Flying and Sport' contains

a) A preface by Walmsley

b) An introduction by Sir Edward Northey

c) The main text generally as in the magazine articles

d) A section entitled 'The Humours of Big and Little Game Shooting' (28pp)

e) A number of illustrations and maps, the illustrations being mainly aerial photographs.

 

The book's page layout/font type is vastly different from that of the magazine e.g. Chapter 1 of the main text is 13pp in Flying & Sport but only just over 5pp in the magazine - hence the discrepancy in the overall number of pages for the chapters which are duplicated.

There are also various examples of editing throughout, and extra material inserted at Ch.XVI 'To Northey'.  In F&S, Ch.XVI is entitled 'Through the Ruaha Floods' and changes are made at the end of the first paragraph in the magazine*.  New text then follows through the rest of F&S's chapter XVI and into another chapter numbered XVII entitled 'Across Central African Tableland'.  After 43 pages of new text from * the magazine text again matches F&S from the bottom of magazine p.190 at 'The aerodrome had been prepared....' and continues the same in both texts to the end of the chapter.  However, the next chapter, Ch.XVII 'The Hunt for Major Wintgens', is now headed 'Ch.XVIII' in F&S (hence the apparent 'extra' chapter which you referred to).

I have attached a file containing scans of the preface, introduction and the lists of contents & illustrations; also attached is the first page of the F&S chapter XVII which contains virtually the only reference to flying in those extra 43 pages missing from the magazine copy.  The rest of those pages mainly detail an overland troop safari from Dodoma to Njombe through rain and flood, and a description of the various hunting expeditions required to feed the convoy on the way.