Embedded Files
It is not every day that you receive a photo of a murder victim in with your daily emails. When the murder happened nearly 73 years ago, in what was the Bechuanaland Protectorate, the surprise registered is even greater.
Walter Adamson - murdered by a group of Bushmen in 1943
The photo was of Walter Adamson, one of two RAF trainee pilots murdered by Bushmen after making a forced landing on a salt pan on the edge of the sparsely populated Kalahari Desert in 1943. This led to one of the biggest trials in Botswana’s history, yet both the story of the killings and the contribution that southern Africa made to WWII have largely slipped from living memory. Although South Africa’s role in the conflict is well documented, especially the SAAF’s efforts in the Middle East as part of the Desert Air Force, its contribution to the Empire Air Training Scheme is less well known. The naming of Port Alfred’s 43 Air School providing a rare reminder.
The part that Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) played in training nearly 10,000 pilots from Britain and the Commonwealth has almost been completely forgotten. In 1939 the Southern Rhodesian government made the offer of the supply and maintenance of three squadrons to the RAF. This offer included flight training for the required personnel.
The British response was to suggest three pairs of training school, basic and advanced, to be based at Salisbury, Bulawayo, and Gwelo. These sites were chosen based on water supply and relatively low levels of malaria. By February the following year a Group Headquarters was operating in Jameson Avenue and nearby Cranbourne had received its first Harvards and Oxfords. The Rhodesian Air Training Group (RATG) was up and running. Interestingly, as a colony rather than a self-governing dominion Rhodesia had been omitted from the discussions that created the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). Yet the RATG was the first member of EATS to actually supply trained pilots to the RAF. Over the next few years the Group expanded until each location had at least three bases – an Elementary Flying School, a Service Flying school, and a maintenance unit. Salisbury also had an instructor’s school at RAF Norton, while Bulawayo had a basic drill school at Hillside. The training was both intensive and extensive. Before leaving an Elementary school an airmen could have expected to have flown in the region of ninety hours. This would have included formation flying and aerobatics as well as time ‘under the hood’ practising instrument flying.
An Airspeed Oxford at a soggy RAF Kumalo
The Service Flying Schools would then add the skills required by a fighting force, including bomber and fighter tactics. This would add another 130 hours or so to the Elementary course, meaning that to gain their wings new pilots would have flown well over 200 hours. This was a huge improvement on the RFC/RAF’s record in the Great War where pilots with less than 20 hours sometimes found their way to the front. It must also be remembered that the majority of pilots would next be transferred to an Operational Conversion Unit back in England before being sent to a front line squadron. Just under ten thousand pilots were trained in Rhodesia during the war, and those involved in this massive effort came from all over the Commonwealth as well as other allied nations. Several pilots trained in the Bulawayo area recalled with a gleam in their eye the attractiveness of the Polish WAAFs!
At the end of the conflict the training effort was quickly slowed and the Rhodesian Group was reduced to Wing status. However, with rising tensions in Europe and the start of the Korean War training in Rhodesia was ramped up again at the beginning of the Cold War with the Group appellation returning. Unfortunately, Great Britain was in big financial trouble following the war, and, despite the benefits of clear skies, the Rhodesian Air Training Group became difficult to justify when flight schools were being closed in the UK. The last RAF pilots gained their wings in October 1953 and the last personnel had been shipped home by the following March.
Some of the surviving 10,000 Batswana veterans, seen in 2015.
Bechuanaland made a surprisingly large contribution to the allied war effort, raising 10,000 volunteers who largely served in the Middle East with the Eighth Army. Their roles ranged from artillery gunners to smoke makers, indeed a company of the latter were present at the final battle of Monte Casino (which gained the Setswana name Marumong, or the place of bullets). Others served as drivers, including for aircraft recovery sections in the Western Desert. A handful of Europeans from the Protectorate served with the RAF, both with Fighter and Bomber Commands. The small country also raised thirteen thousand pounds to buy two Spitfires that were named Kalahari and Bechuanaland. Coincidentally, they were both shot down within a couple of miles of each other just off the French coast.
Polish pilot Zygmunt Słomski lost his life when Bechuanaland was hit by flak after a fighter sweep in 1942. Kalahari survived until it too was downed by flak while spotting for artillery after the D-Day landings.
Gordon Edwards grew up in Wales before serving in Russia and Egypt before being posted to Rhodesia for pilot training.
Walter Adamson and Gordon Edwards were typical of the young men who found themselves learning to fly as part of the RATG. Walter grew up just outside Leeds in the north of England and had planned a future as an Architect. Gordon was his mother’s favourite and had led a sheltered existence in the Welsh valleys. Rugby was not part of his mother’s plans, but he was a very keen cricketer. Both had joined the war early in the conflict and both had served as ground crew. Gordon had a ‘superior’ rating and had been part of 151 Wing which had fought with Hurricanes in Murmansk before handing over their equipment to the Russian Navy. Eventually, they both left sweethearts at home and found themselves in Egypt before being accepted for flight training. This meant a long journey by sea to Durban’s Clairewood Camp before a two day rail trip took them to Bulawayo, via Bechuanaland. After initial ground school at RAF Hillside, they underwent basic flight training at RAF Induna before being posted to RAF Kumalo for advance training. Here they flew Airspeed Oxfords on a range of missions, ranging from formation training to bombing practice. Gordon and Walter were paired together and often flew as the other one’s safety pilot. By the start of October 1943 they had only three weeks of flying left before gaining their wings and they probably expected to be back in Europe for Christmas.
The 'office' of an Airspeed Oxford.
On the morning of October 4th they took off on a simple navigation sortie. They should have been back for lunch. They were never seen again. A large and unsuccessful search followed and just when hope of finding their missing Oxford was fading a rumour that an aeroplane was sat on a salt pan reached the Bechuanaland police in Francistown. A small search party was dispatched and Oxford HN607 was found intact at Kuaxaxa Pan, about 40km to the north west of Nata. A note, signed by both pilots, said they had set off to walk but no sign could be found of them. Wing Commander Grace flew from RAF Kumalo and recovered the missing Oxford which only needed fuel and oil to make it airworthy again. Over the next couple of months the story of the gruesome murders emerged and a hunting party of Tyua Bushmen were arrested and charged. Two jars of fat that contained human hair and a bullet recovered from the hunting campsite were the only physical evidence of the fate of the two airmen.
The above and the story of the subsequent trial is told in full in The Kalahari Killings which was published by the History Press UK in 2015. This led to some interesting follow up information, including the photograph of Walter Adamson.
The fatal flight's final route.
Why the pilots had found themselves so far off track has been the source of much comment. They had been sent to photograph Selukwe and Gwanda and the camera in HN607 showed they had accomplished their task and this made them overshooting Bulawayo by several hundred miles even more inexplicable. As described in the book the RAF modified their compasses after this incident, so it could have been a simple misreading error. Those who were involved in last year’s Race for Rhinos, which involved flying in the Nata area, can testify to the difficulty of navigation in such a desolate area. With the recent declassification of secret documents a new, if fanciful, theory has been put forth. In 1942 the British government was worried about the prospect of a losing Germany using Gas as a weapon of last resort. By 1943 the matter had been passed to the Ministry of Aircraft Production with the aim of finding an area suitable for British testing of Chemical and Biological weapons. This was project was given the code word ‘FORENSIC’. The High Commission in Pretoria were approached but they were quick to deny that South Africa had any suitable sites, instead they pointed northwards to Bechuanaland.
After some investigation the Makgadikgadi Pans near Nata were suggested as the best place to undertake the tests. The contentious nature of this Top Secret plan were clearly understood as one Bechuanaland official replied to London ‘Your instructions have been noted and your letter destroyed by burning’. The suggestion is that Walter and Gordon had been tasked to reconnoiter the proposed site, including taking photos. The fact that their aircraft was recovered by a relatively high ranked officer, Wing Commander Grace, is given as evidence that their sortie was a serious one. The argument against this theory is that the air force would surely have chosen an experienced crew to survey a proposed test site rather than a pair of sergeants still undergoing training. This idea also does not explain why the two pilots ran out of petrol if they were in the area they should have been.
The heavy rains at the end of 1943 that hampered the police investigation into the disappearance of the pilots also served to postpone the poison gas trials. In the event, by the start of 1944 the UK government had begun to lose interest in the scheme and Operation FORENSIC was confined to a secret file in the National Archives. It is hard to imagine that the beautiful Kubu Island might have been out of bounds to humans today if FORENSIC had come to fruition.
Lobatse High Court - the scene of one of Bechuanaland's most famous trials.
The photograph was forwarded by Walter Adamson’s nephew, David. Until he came across The Kalahari Killings mentioned in a UK aviation forum, he had no idea of his uncle’s unfortunate fate. He contacted the author and supplied, along with lots of background information, the last remaining image of Walter. His father had destroyed all the other family photos in a fit of rage following the death of his young wife, but fortunately an aunt had saved a single photograph of Walter looking proud in his new uniform.
The photo was a crucial piece of evidence that would have changed the outcome of the trial and the course of history for Bushmen in Botswana. All of the Tyua involved in the trial described Walter as having fairer hair than Gordon. This took some time as their evidence had to be translated into Setswana and then into English. Flight Lieutenant Payne of the RAF gave evidence to the contrary. Unfortunately, there were no photographs of either pilot available to the court. The judge in the case believed the Bushmen to be lying, possible under pressure from the police, and this was a big factor in the eventual outcome.
When The Kalahari Killings was written only Gordon’s photo was available and although that strongly suggested that the RAF officer had been wrong it is nice to have it confirmed. There is a saying that justice delayed is justice denied. While this is certainly true in this case, with the killers long past the reach of the law, perhaps the victims’ families can take some solace from the fact their stories can now be told in full.
The Kalahari Killings is available from all good book sellers, either in paperback or ebook form - see https://www.amazon.com/Kalahari-Killings-Laverick/dp/0750956658
(This article originally appeared in SA Flyer in 2016)
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse