I've (quite per chance) come accross some more information on rmy AOP pilots in a nice new book "Facta Nostra Vivent" by Andrew Embleton. It is a book about the SAAF's Central Flying School. On pp 216-7 the book mentions that from 1955 to 1962 Army pilots (all artillery officers) were trained at CFS.
It seems that when Cessna 185's arrived from 1962 to replace the Austers training was done by Comair, a commercial airline before 42 AOP Flt became a Sqn in its own right with it's own Training Flight formed in Dec 62/Jan 63. SAAF Instructors were seconded to this flight until the unit had built up its own team of instructors. In 1963 the Army instructors trained members from various corps of the Army (no longer solely from the artillery).
>> I wonder whether this may be when & why the wing was changed from the winged artillery grenade to the springbok?
In 1968 the unit was transfered to the SAAF as 42 Sqn.
The book mentions most of the officers joined the SAAF, did a Harvard conversion course and qualified for SAAF pilot wings.
>> I assume therefore that the only chaps who continued to wear the army wings would have been the few chaps who chose to remain in the Army rather than transfer to the SAAF.
To my great delight, I found that one Page 69 there is a photo of a group of Army pilots in jocular mood wearing wings . They appear to be wearing Owens C287 on army service dress shirts with berets. The beret is a very light colour which starts yet another mystery - what colour were the berets?
South African Artillery berets are navy blue but this was not always the case. The range of berets in corps colours was only introduced from the late 1960s onwards. In WW2 for example armoured and motorcycle troops wore black and everyone else (incl. engineers, artillery and air force) wore khaki. My guess is that the berets are khaki but I would love to hear confirmation (or otherwise).
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