The bravery and sacrifice of the 48 members of 31 and 34 squadrons of the South African Air Force (SAAF) who died in one day in the Italian Alps during World War II has been remembered at a moving service at the SAAF Memorial on Bays Hill in Pretoria.
Martin Urry, Chairman of the Alpine 44 Club, outlined that it was 82 years after the 48 men of the SAAF’s two squadrons lost their lives in October 1944 on a mission to fly supplies to the Italian partisans fighting in the Po Valley behind German lines. He stressed the importance of holding the annual service to remember the tragedy in the Alps, and also to honour the memory of the airmen as well as the partisans, the ground crews and the families who bore the cost of war.
He said: “We remember the aircrews – volunteers all of them – carrying supplies to the partisans, whose struggle was largely hidden from the world. We remember their courage, their comradeship and the terrible price that they paid. We remember the ground crews at Celone in southern Italy, the mechanics and all those who prepared and serviced the aircraft. Their work is often unseen, but every mission depended on them. They formed a strong bond with their aircraft and their crew. I cannot imagine their state of mind, indeed the whole squadron on the morning…when news filtered through that six aircraft had not returned from the previous night’s mission.”
Reverend Trevor Slade, himself a former SAAF member with a short flying career, said the extreme and severe weather conditions and the action by the enemy made it an utterly dangerous mission. So, it was no surprise that six Liberators crashed – five into the Alps and one into the sea. He noted this tragic event was a profoundly important saga in the long history of the SAAF.
Martin Urry is the nephew of Major Selwyn Urry who was the pilot of 31 Squadron’s aircraft KH158. Urry’s plane is believed to have crashed into the sea off Genoa but has never been found. It was one of 20 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers which were to drop supplies to Italian partisans in north-west Italy in support of the Allied assault on the heavily fortified German defensive system known as the Gothic Line.
The aircraft flew night missions, flying at low altitude over heavily defended territory to reach pre-arranged drop zones.
On the night of 12 October, they encountered unexpectedly bad weather with very heavy cloud and rain. Only three aircraft out of the 20, successfully located their drop zones and delivered their payloads – 11 aborted their mission, and six were lost. 48 airmen – from the SAAF, Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force – lost their lives. This was the SAAF’s heaviest loss in a single day in World War II. In tribute, the names of all the crew of the six ill-fated aircraft were read out at the service.
Emilio Coccia, President of the Zonderwater Block ex-POW Association, also stressed the importance of remembering, not only to honour the soldiers who died for their fatherland, but also as a step towards reconciliation, because he pointed out that some Italians were allied to the South Africans while others where enemies.
Another Italian connection of Worl War II which forged further strong relations between South Africa and Italy was the humane treatment and positive conditions at the Zonderwater camp outside Pretoria. This was the largest Allied Prisoner of War camp in World War II, where some 109 000 Italian POWs spent up to six years.
Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Chief of the SAAF and the crew members of each of the six aircraft lost on the night of the 12th and 13th of October 1944. The Zonderwater Block ex-POW Association, the Associazione Nazionale Alpini Sezione Sud Africa, the Associazione Nazionale Carabinieri, the Italian Defence Attache as well as the South African Legion and the South African Air Force Association also laid wreaths.
To end the ceremony, a wreath was also laid at the Memorial to the Unknown Airman in to remember the South African pilots of Italian descent who gave their lives during the Korean War between 1950 and 1953.
