Spice wrote:
Yes, thanks: SAAF 85 has the following info:
H-???? Serial unknown of the aircdaft in which observer wass killed due to ground fire during flight - Rand Revolt Ops
https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/birth-south-african-air-forceQuote:
The air force also suffered its very first deaths in action during this Revolt, namely Captain Carey-Thomas killed on 10 March and Air Corporal William Henry Johns on 13 March 1922.
On Friday 10 March 1922 an estimated 500-700 strikers attacked the shaft and adjacent offices of the Brakpan Mine. A small assortment of mine officials and Special Constables attempted to defend the property but surrendered when their ammunition ran out. Subsequently, several of the defenders were shot or bludgeoned to death by the enraged strikers.
When the SAAF later flew over the area, Captain W. W. Carey-Thomas MC, Adjutant of the SAAF, who had been a senior Mine Official on the East Rand prior to World War 1, and serving as aerial observer because of his knowledge of the area, was killed by a bullet through the heart.
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