SA WAAF wing

[natal01]

In 1940 the WAAF was established in South Africa. There were a wide variety of wartime tasks performed by the members of the WAAF, but it seems that there were relatively few pilots ( an article by the SA Military History Society indicates that in 1941 there were 36 'A' licence holders in the unit )
The SA WAAF had their own pilot wing and , although there are fakes around, I have only seen one genuine verifiable example ( I'm sure that there are others, but I havent seen them ) . I am delighted to report that I have finally acquired this wing .

[Traist]

Hi Mike, a very nice find indeed. Regards Andrew

[7923BSAP]

Mike, thats a great find, will make Jimmy's mouth water!
Bill

[sabrigade]

Hi Mike,

I also have a WAAF wing and will try have it posted.

How can you confirm if it is original?

Regards from North Carolina,

Will

[natal01]

To the few of you that are interested, here is a picture of the officers of the South African Woman's Auxiliary Air Unit at their first parade in April 1940. The OC, Doreen Dunning is 4th from the left. The flying qualified members are wearing their wings. Also interesting is their cap badge, which Owen's book has listed as 'wings'

[Traist]

Hi Mike, thanks for the info on the cap badge. I will note it as such now. You learn something new everyday, and to day you are the teacher. Have fun. Andrew

[SAS1]

I'm not sure I agree with you Mike. Are you sure the group photograph is not of the original six women of the South African Women's Aviation Association, with its principal founder, Marjorie Egerton Bird 2nd from right?? Having been formed in 1938, they were formerly recognised as the 'South African Women's Voluntary Auxiliary Air Unit of the Siouth African Air Force in early October 1939.

The badge shown next to it was the 1st pattern 'SAWAA' cap badge, the SAWAA becoming popularly known as the Women's Civil Air Guard?

At the outbreak of the war, the women of the SAWAA volunteered themselves for service with the SAAF. Doreen Dunning was the first, called up on June 1st 1940, followed soon after by Egerton Bird and others.

The second pattern cap badge was I believe, the first after the members of the SAWAA had been reformed as the SAWAAF (hence the lettering), and before the huge reorganisation of the SAWAAF in 1942. I believe the familiar SA WAAF cap badge came into use then.

[natal01]

You may well be right. There is very little available solid information and what I do know has been culled from articles in the Star, Outspan of the time and a more recent article in the SA Military History journal. I should be very interested to get some more info on the Woman's Civil Air Guard ( which wasn't mentioned in any of my sources - admittedly not the most scholarly references, but all that I had ) .
Let's see if we can tease out the truth and get it "out there" so that the handfull of people who are interested in this sort of thing can at least get the real facts. Too often one sees supposition paraded as fact, and once published, becomes 'reality'.
Regards
Mike