Quote:
Originally Posted by David Moore
I have not been able to find out very much about the Corps. I would be grateful if anyone could give me any information.
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David, it was a fairly short-lived corps, forerunner of the present
SA Air Force.
Shortly after the Union Defence Forces were established in 1912/13,
the government decided to add a flying corps. A small group of volunteers
was recruited, trained at a civilian flying school, and then sent to England
in 1914, for advanced training with the Royal Flying Corps.
WWI broke out while they were still there, and they got in some combat experience
in France before returing to SA at the end of the year.
The SA Aviation Corps was formally established as an Active Citizen Force unit
on 29 January 1915. It was deployed in the German SW Africa campaign,
from May 1915, flying Henri-Farman biplanes.
After the campaign ended, in July 1915, the members of the SAAC transferred
to the RFC, where they formed 26 Squadron in October 1915. For practical purposes,
that was the end of the SAAC, but it continued to exist on paper.
Shortly after the war ended, the government decided to establish a
Permanent Force air branch, named the SA Air Force, and this was duly
done in 1921 (though the official date is 1 February 1920). The SAAC
was then disbanded, on 30 September 1921.