Page 31 - Demo

31Egypt, Iraq and Libya until early 1944 when, by this time mounted on Spitfires it moved to Corsica and southern France, ending the war in northern Italy. Another unit granted the right to incorporate the name %u2018Rhodesia%u2019 within its title was No 266 Sqn.6 Following the Battle of Britain, numbers of Rhodesians were posted to the unit and the Balateur Eagle was approved as its badge in August 1941. Initially flying Spitfires, it changed to Typhoons in early 1942 and operated these aircraft in the fighter and fighter bomber role for the remainder of the war. The third unit to be %u2018named%u2019 for Rhodesia,7 in recognition of the colony%u2019s contribution to the war effort, was No 44 Sqn, the first to convert fully to the Lancaster. In April 1942 No 44 Sqn provided half a dozen aircraft which, with 97 Squadron, made a daylight attack on the MAN diesel engine plant at Augsburg, resulting in South African born Squadron Leader John Nettleton being awarded the Victoria Cross. Despite the squadron%u2019s nominal association with Rhodesia, however, no more than a quarter of its crews were ever Rhodesian. For so small a country, the war cost Rhodesia a significant number of casualties; 498 fatalities from 2,409 men who served in the RAF. Nonetheless, these men received 258 honours and awards. In South Africa the prospect of war with Germany was a contentious issue, since the sitting Prime Minister, Barry Hertzog, many MPs and a considerable portion of the population were either sympathetic to the Nazi cause or were, given the divisions within white society, simply anti8British. The constitution, however, imposed on the South African Government an obligation to declare war and a caucus of MPs immediately began to debate the issue. The outcome was that Hertzog was replaced by Jan Smuts %u2013 to whom the RAF already owed a considerable debt %u2013 and South Africa declared war on 6 September. At the time, the SAAF was both small and poorly equipped; it had few modern aircraft and little ability to mount or sustain military operations. As a result, the South Africans line was that they would only participate in operations within Africa but pragmatism would modify that stance in both operations and training. To protect British possessions in East Africa, two SA Army divisions and supporting troops were deployed to Kenya in early 1940 and these were supported by a fighter squadron, equipped with