Page 30 - Demo

30RAF Bomber Command the casualties totalled 9,980. They also note that by the war%u2019s end a quarter of Bomber Command%u2019s aircrew were Canadian of whom almost 6,000 were flying in units outside No 6 Group.5 A large number of honours and awards were bestowed on Canadian Air Force personnel, the most notable being a posthumous Victoria Cross to Plt Off Andrew Mynarski, in addition to the previously noted VC to David Hornell. Although it had been a self8governing colony since 1923 and the British government had not exercised its reserved powers, Rhodesia was de facto %u2013 if not de jure %u2013 of Dominion status and that is how I shall treat the country in this paper. The auxiliary members of the Southern Rhodesian Air Unit were called up in August 1939 and by the end of the month a small force of six Harts or Audaxes was at Nairobi. As the build up continued, the air unit was renamed the Southern Rhodesian Air Force and its operational unit in Kenya became No 1 Sqn SRAF. The SRAF was absorbed into the Royal Air Force in April 1940 and the squadron was redesignated as No 237 (Rhodesia) Sqn RAF. The Italians declared war in June 1940 and the squadron fought in the East African campaign before moving to Egypt in the following spring. Re8equipped with Hurricanes, No 237 Sqn operated over A Typhoon of No 266 (Rhodesia) Sqn.