1942 - Continued

At the time my mother was writing her diary entries from January to November of 1942, my father was in the air force. There were many details omitted from mum’s dairy that I would dearly love to know. She mentions nothing about my dad in the air force, but she does talk a lot of friends and acquaintances going missing, or dying and she is terribly worried when the Japs invade Australia. "Will they come for South Africa next" she wonders.

After my dad died in January 2000, his brother, Graham, got hold of and sent me dad's war records from the South African Defence archives. Suddenly a door opened into part of my father's life about which I previously knew nothing.

Before dad enlisted, he had completed a BSc degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1939. He went on to do an engineering degree at the University of Cape Town in 1940 but after a year he decided to join the airforce.

I learnt from Graham, who was also in the air force, ahead of dad, that "all airforce recruits had to undergo long and boring ground training [near Pretoria] before being sent to flying school."

This ground training took the best part of 9 months and finally dad was able to start flying training on Tiger Moths at Baragwanath in October 1941. "After 50 hours flying" according to Graham "pupils were posted to an advanced flying school where you had to complete 100 hours on service type aircraft."

My father's advanced training was on a twin-engined Oxford Airspeed. The Oxford was primarily built for the Royal Air Force but seven were modified for the South African Air Force. Dad got his wings on April 10, 1942.

Six days later my mother's diary records "Got home from school this afternoon to find Nat [my dad] here. He'd got in from Pretoria that morning. He had to be up at varsity [University of CapeTown] to meet a friend so I only saw him for 5 minutes. This evening Mrs G. [his mother] rang me up and asked me out for the weekend, so quite obviously Nat had asked her to ask me."

While my dad waits for his next posting in the air force, he courts my mother. The weekend at his family home in Stellenbosch was tense. "I didn't have a minute with Nat alone all day. Mrs G obviously keeping Nat and me apart. We had to play a game of chess to be alone. Anyhow he held my hand all the way through flick tonight." After the weekend my mother returns to her family home just beneath the University of Cape Town. Dad visits her and tells her he loves her and has done so for two years. My mother is so happy.

In April 1942 dad was 24, nine months older than mum. They were so young!