page_title: 1 Squadron SAAF
section_title: Western Desert
hierarchical_section_title: 1 Squadron SAAF / History / World War II / Western Desert
caption_attribution_description: English: Spitfire Mk. Vc of 1 Squadron SAAF
context_page_description: 1 Squadron SAAF was an air force squadron of the South African Air Force and was formed at Air Force Station Swartkop in February 1920, equipped with De Havilland DH.9's part of the Imperial Gift donation to South Africa by Britain. On 31 August 1939 the squadron was re-designated as 1 Bomber/Fighter Squadron and this was then changed to 11 Squadron in December 1939. The squadron was resurrected in February 1940 by the renumbering of 6 Squadron, equipped with four Hurricane Mk 1's and six Furies.
  1 Squadron saw active service in East Africa in 1940, the Western Desert, Malta, Sicily and ended their war service in Italy in 1945. In 1950 the squadron's Spitfires were replaced with Vampires and these in turn were replaced by Sabre Mk6's in 1956. In 1976 the squadron received Mirage F1AZ attack aircraft and it was disbanded when the F1AZ's were retired on 25 November 1997.
context_section_description: The Squadron arrived in April 1941 and scored its first kill on 16 May when Lt. Talbot shot down a Ju 87.  The first large scale deployment was in support of Operation Brevity and later in support of Operation Battleaxe when Lt. Talbot - the squadrons highest scoring ace with 10 kills at that stage, was shot down and killed.  By this stage, the squadron was only flying Hurricanes.  During Operation Crusader    the squadron forced down a German Bf109F, capturing it intact - for which they were congratulated by Air Chief Marshal Tedder for capturing the first of this type of aircraft.
  By the time of Operation Crusader the squadron was part of No. 258 Wing RAF, under the direct command of Air Headquarters Western Desert.
  On 3 July 1942, the squadron was intercepting a German raid on the Alamein area while No. 272 Squadron RAF was providing them with top cover.  The formation came across 15 Junkers Ju 87s escorted by 7 Bf109s; 274 Sqn attacked the Bf109s whilst 1 Sqn went after the Ju 87s.  In what was later to become known as the "1 Squadron Stuka Party" the squadron destroyed 14 Ju 87s, damaged two and shot down one of the Bf109s for the loss of just one aircraft (Lt Ray Connell, who crash landed at Burgh-el-Arab after a rear gunner destroyed his oil pump) in a forty-five-minute engagement.
  During the second Battle of El Alamein, the Squadron was tasked with protecting the allied armour in their advance across the start line during the break-out phase, where Squadron Hurricanes destroyed a number of Ju 87 Stukas during this phase of the battle.   After the Battle of Alamein, the squadron received Spitfires as replacements for their Hawker Hurricanes.
  During April 1943, German transport aircraft were freighting supplies to the beleaguered Africa Korps in Tunisia after Allied air and sea interdiction had stopped most of their ship borne supplies coming from Italy. On the 22nd, the Squadron Spitfires joined by Kittyhawks from SAAF 2, 4 and 5 Squadrons intercepted 21 huge Me323's attempting to bring in fuel (each aircraft carried 10 tons of fuel) to Tunisia.  They destroyed 16 Me323's and two of their fighter escorts (one MC.202 and one Re.2001).  After this successful intercept, Goering forbade all transport flights to Africa.  The decision was overturned two days later after protests from Kesselring, on condition that all future flights were made by night.
  During the fighting in the Western Desert in 1941 (while operating under the 6 Squadron designation) they acquired their nickname "The Billy Boys" because whenever successful in combat, the South African pilots would shout "Jou Bielie!" over the radio (roughly translated into British English as "You clever chap!" and into American English as "You Hoss!").
caption: Spitfire Mk. Vc of 1 Squadron SAAF
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