Peter During

 WW2 SAAF Spitfire pilot tribute web page: Peter During

Hi and welcome to this site!

I visited Peter at his house in Cape Town in January 2013. Peter was so kind to share his ww2 experiences with me and allowed me to copy his war photographs. Thanks also to Peter for telling some of his war stories in front of the camera.

Peter joined the SAAF in 1942 and completed his training as fighter pilot in 1944. He was then sent to the Middle East and eventually joined up with No.10 squadron. This squadron was  a reserve force stationed  in North Africa. Some uneventful sorties  were flown to Crete. No.10 squadron was disbanded in late 1944. In early 1945 Peter was transferred to No.7 fighter squadron situated in Italy. Here Peter flew Spitfire IX's on mainly dive-bombing and strafing missions. Just before the end of the war Peter was shot down and made POW. He convinced his captors to become his prisoners and after 5 days they returned to the allied lines where upon he rejoined  the squadron.

After the war Peter had a .......



 This is a living web site. Any input and/or participation will be much appreciated regarding additional information, correctness, information from relatives of members who served with Peter in his squadron, photographs, stories etc. Please e-mail me. Most welcome will be any photographs of No. 10 and 7 squadrons while Peter was with them.

If you perhaps have a family member who served as a SAAF fighter pilot during ww2 and you would want to find out more about his war service please contact me, hopefully I can be of some help.

Tinus le Roux

Feb 2013




VIDEO



 


MILITARY CAREER 



13/07/1942    No.75 Air School, Lyttleton: ground training, training with armoured cars

12/06/1943    No.3 Air School, Wonderboom: Elementary flying Training, Tiger Moths

31/08/1943    No.23 Air School, Waterkloof: Advanced Flying Training, Harvards

06/01/1944   Qualify for wings

06/01/1944   Promoted to 2nd leutenant

29/01/1944    No.11 OTU, Zwartkops, P-40 Kittyhawk

19/02/1944    No.11 OTU, Isipingo, P-40 Kittyhawk

12/03/1944    No.11 OTU, Waterkloof, P-40 Kittyhawk

01/04/1944    MAF

25/04/1944    SAAF Base camp Almazi: transfer camp

28/04/1944    No.73 OTU Abu Suier: Spitfire Mk. I

20/05/1944    Base camp Almazi

10/06/1944    SAAF No. 10 sqdn, Aleppo Syria

24/06/1944    No.10 sqdn, Idku (Egypt)

13/07/1944    No.10 sqdn, Mersa Matruh

30/07/1944    No.10 sqdn, Idku

14/09/1944    No.10 sqdn, Savoia, (Libya)

14/12/1944    Perugia

10/01/1945    SAAF No.7 sqdn, Forli, Italy

01/03/1945    Ravenna

 Early April 1945      Shot down, POW

 Five days later        Returned to 7 sqdn

17/05/1945    Udine









 


CLICK HERE TO VIEW PETER'S COMPLETE PHOTOGRAPH SET 


TRAINING


Wings parade, Waterkloof, 

 

Wings parade day: Peter 3d from left 2nd row.

 

11 OTU  Isipingo, Kittyhawks

 

11 OTU,  

Kittyhawk, 11 OTU

 


 


 

NO. 10 SQUADRON 


 

 


 

 

Damaged Spitfire IX

 

Peter

 

High altitude Spitfire IX's  SHF


Squadron mate

 

 Lauri, George Segalla, Peter

No. 7 Squadron

 

Peter flew operational sorties with Spitfire IX aircraft on mainly  strafing and dive-bombing kind of missions. 


 

 

 

BEHIND ENEMY LINES 1945

Peter was shot down by members of a Herman Goering anti aircraft division. He crash landed and was captured. Some of his captors had to escort Peter to the rear. During this time Peter convince his captors to become his prisoners and he will give them all a good recommendation to allied POW authorities. At one stage they were accommodated at a farm house where civilians gave them food and wine. This set of photographs was taken here with the one German's camera. You can see that Peter is holding the Mp-40 machine pistol and they all seem to be friends by now. Before Peter handed his prisoners over to Canadian troops the German gave his camera to Peter and the photographs were developed after the war.



 

The camera of the one German that was given to Peter and is still in Peter's  possession.

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