DEFENCE DARREN OLIVIER
TO BE MORE
PRECISE
Between 10 and 15 March 1922, DH9 light bombers from 1 Squadron South African Air Force (SAAF) trundled into the skies for dozens of bombing and reconnaissance missions over central Johannesburg, Benoni, and Brakpan to help put down the Rand Rebellion. What began as a strike by miners had turned into a full-blown revolt as heavily-armed rebels held 20 000 troops of the South African Army at bay for almost a week.
W
HILE 1 SQUADRON performed well, particularly in forcing rebels from trenches dug in Fordsburg Square during the momentous battle there on 15 March, the operation was far from untroubled. First, on 11 March, the SAAF inadvertently killed a civilian, Mrs Truter, in Benoni when a wayward bomb landed next to her house instead of the intended target. Later, during the fighting at Fordsburg, one of the bombs intended for the trenches on the square hit a nearby church instead, damaging its steeple. Neither was easily avoidable: The DH9 was a primitive bomber by today’s standards, with its bombs stored tail-up in an internal bay resulting in wild swings as they entered the slipstream and only a simple negative lens sight to aid the pilot in knowing when to release them.
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FlightCom August 2021
1 Squadron had also lost two pilots and two aircraft to ground fire, as a result of being forced to fly low level to maintain a reasonable level of accuracy during attack runs. But it was perhaps a foreshadowing moment for the SAAF that its first combat action, a mere two years after its founding, involved both the bombing of civilians-turned-rebels in the heart of Johannesburg and the accidental killing of civilian bystanders. It was an early and painful lesson for the young service, and a harbinger of a future where bombing targets have become ever more integrated into civilian urban areas, not easily distinguishable from surrounding civilians, and where the risk of collateral damage remains both high and extremely damaging to a war effort.
