page_title: History of the South African Air Force
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: History of the South African Air Force / World War II
caption_attribution_description: Camm Hart 500. This is almost certainly a photo of G-ABMR dressed as the first production Hart J9933, as she was between 1959 and 1970.
context_page_description: The History of the South African Air Force spans the First World War, Rand Rebellion of 1922, the Second World War, the Korean War, the South African Border War, and varied peacekeeping operations since 1994. Its battle honours include German South West Africa 1914–15, German East Africa 1915–1918, East Africa: 1939–1941, Middle East: 1941–43, Madagascar 1942, Italy 1943–1945, the Balkans 1943–1945, and Korea 1950–1953.
context_section_description: When war broke out on 3 September 1939, the SAAF was ill-prepared, not only for the defence of the Union but also lacking in any capability to provide any tangible support to the Commonwealth. The 1934 Five Year Plan for expansion had not materialised and the SAAF still consisted of only 160 permanent force officers, 35 cadets and 1,400 other ranks organised into one operational and two training squadrons, as well as five shadow squadrons that existed only on paper. The training schemes implemented since 1934 had focused on volume and although over 1,000 pilots had been trained – these pilots could fly, but were not competent as combat pilots. Also, no air observers had yet been trained. The 104 aircraft air fleet was considered obsolete with the front-line operational aircraft consisting of four Hurricanes Mkl's, one Blenheim bomber and one Fairey Battle. Fortunately, there was no enemy activity in the region in the initial period of the war, permitting time to expand and re-structure the SAAF.
  Urgent remedial measures were implemented; The lack of combat ready pilots was greatly alleviated by the establishment of the Joint Air Training Scheme (JATS) to train Royal Air Force (RAF), SAAF and other allied air and ground crews at 38 newly created South African air schools. Resources were increased and by September 1941 the SAAF had a personnel strength of 31 204, of whom 956 were pilots, 715 observers and air-gunners, 2 943 basic trainees and 4 321 members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Urgent aircraft procurement programs resulted in the total number of military aircraft in the Union being increased to 1 709 aircraft (South African based aircraft, excluding those deployed in the different operational areas).
caption: The Hawker Hartbeest: one of the most common early World War II fighter aircraft of the SAAF
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