BOOK REVIEW by Peter Chapman BUCCANEER BOYS True tales by those who flew the last all-British bomber Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork MBE, FRAES © Graham Pitchfork 2013 ISBN 9781909166110 Published By: Grub Street Publishing 4 Rainham Close London SW11 6SS U.K. grubstreet.co.uk A truly hidden gem, the average reader interested in books on the former SADF and the Border War period in Southern Africa between 1966 and 1989 might not give this autobiography a second glance under normal circumstances, with its subject covering a British aircraft operated primarily by the British military air arms. But, if they did, they would miss out on a whole new and interesting piece of first-hand South African Air Force history too, as this rather bulky and menacing aircraft was also operated by No.24 Squadron, SAAF, from their initial purchase in 1964 until the conclusion of the Border War. In fact, having read the book personally, it seems that the Buccaneer was only ever deployed in its designated operational combat mode by the SAAF. The only other time it was used in wartime being with the RAF as a target marker for better performing aircraft during the first Gulf War in 1991. As the reader can imagine, the book title is an accurate description of the contents, with the author assembling a number of recollections from men who served on the Buccaneer, mainly with the Royal Navy or Royal Air Force. The latter are very interesting and well presented, covering virtually all aspects of the Buccaneers long association with these air arms, from training to overseas deployments as far afield as the Middle East, Malta and Germany. For us though there are also some few recollections by SAAF officers who flew the Buccaneer, and well worth the read they are, even if they are only a small part of the book as a whole. The first mention of the SAAFs involvement comes in Chapter Four, which has the stories of Theo de Munnick and Anton de Klerk, a pilot and navigator respectively, who were two of the first men to familiarise on the Buccaneer at Lossiemouth in Scotland, before flying the purchased aircraft back to South Africa in 1964. De Klerks recollections are particularly interesting, as he had the misfortune to have to eject from his aircraft, along with his pilot Martin Jooste, over the Atlantic Ocean en route, having to be subsequently rescued by a passing cruise ship. The second of the SAAF accounts is by Gert Havenga, and comes in Chapter Thirteen – Operations in SWA/Angola 1975-1981. I found these to be not quite as detailed unfortunately as the earlier chapter, as Havenga tends to skim over his service, covering the entire time period in just six pages! He does however provide some interesting anecdotes and photographs. One of the more amusing, although not for all, was an attack on a SWAPO base in Angola, which failed to kill a single insurgent due to poor finishing, but did account for six unfortunate elephants! The final SAAF memoir, by navigator Peter Kirkpatrick, is contained in Chapter Twenty – SAAF Buccaneers at War. This chapter is again very interesting, especially as it is by the back seat man, and he writes well on the challenges faced in that position during an attack. Having served initially on C-130 Hercules transports, he transferred to 24 Squadron in 1985 after converting to the Buccaneer, completing 27 combat sorties in this aircraft in the late 1980s, many of which he gives details of in his nine pages of recollections, also illustrated. Apart from the SAAF personal recollections, the book has many interesting features, including a huge range of colour and black-and-white photographs, plus a brief biography of each of the contributors, at the end of the book. This is a very interesting read, especially given its first-hand nature of commentary, and the SAAF memoirs especially so, as these are rarely encountered in this reviewers experience. Recommended. Peter Stephen Chapman
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 05:05:25 +0000
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