Every war the South African Air Force has fought
The air force was used at home and in the mandated territory as well as abroad: against armed strikers on the Rand in 1922 and against the Bondelswarts the same year, when Wikipedia gives about 100 Bondelswarts killed, women and children among them, and the unofficial SAAF history records none. South Africa calls Cassinga a SWAPO base, while SWAPO and Angola call it a refugee camp and give 624 dead; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found in 1998 that it was a military facility from the SADF’s perspective but could not establish the civilian toll. Over Cuito Cuanavale Fidel Castro claimed an overwhelming victory, South Africa says it stopped FAPLA’s offensive and most historians cited by Wikipedia call it a stalemate; air losses there are given with the side that claims them. Rwanda’s role in the M23 offensive of 2025 is described by UN experts and denied by Rwanda, and is not assessed here. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From German South West Africa in 1915 to the SADC mission in the DRC in 2025.
| 対立 | 年 | に対して | 主要航空機 | 出撃 | 航空機が失われた | |
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| German South West Africa campaignthe Aviation Corps’ first warSouth African Aviation Corps | 1915 | ドイツ | ||||
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Reconnaissance for the Union forces. South Africa’s first military pilots trained at Alexandersfontein near Kimberley and qualified in April 1914. The South African Aviation Corps was formed in early 1915 and began operations in German South West Africa on 6 May 1915, scouting for the Union’s columns. When the campaign ended the corps ceased separate operations and its airmen went on to the Royal Flying Corps; the corps was formally disbanded in 1921. 結果 German forces in South West Africa surrendered in July 1915; the corps ceased separate operations. The unofficial SAAF history dates the corps to 5 February 1915; Wikipedia gives 29 January 1915. Aircraft types were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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| First World War with the Royal Flying Corps26 Squadron RFC in East AfricaSouth African airmen in the Royal Flying Corps | 1916年～1918年 | ドイツ | ||||
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26 Squadron RFC, formed from South African pilots, flew reconnaissance in East Africa; others served in RFC units in Europe. 26 Squadron RFC, a South African unit, deployed to Kenya in January 1916 for the campaign against German East Africa. Many more South Africans flew in Europe; Wikipedia counts about 3,000 in the Royal Flying Corps, of whom 46 became aces. The best known, Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor, won the Victoria Cross. In 1917 a committee chaired by Jan Smuts recommended the creation of an independent air force. 結果 26 Squadron disbanded in July 1918. The casualty figure and ace count come from Wikipedia’s citation of Shores, Franks and Guest and were not checked against the original.
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| Rand Revoltthe 1922 miners’ strikeSouth African Air Force | 1922 | Armed strikers on the Witwatersrand | 2 | |||
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Reconnaissance, bombing and strafing in support of the government against armed strikers. Two years after it was founded, the SAAF went into action against white South African mine workers whose strike had turned into armed revolt on the Witwatersrand. Between 10 and 15 March 1922, 1 Squadron flew 127 hours and lost two aircraft. The unofficial SAAF history records that an observer was killed and that a pilot shot a striker in self-defence. It was the first time the new air force was used inside South Africa. 結果 The revolt was put down by the government.
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| Bondelswarts RebellionSouth West AfricaSouth African Air Force | 1922 | Bondelswarts (Nama) | DH.9 | |||
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Bombing, strafing, reconnaissance and supply for the mandate administration. When the Bondelswarts, a Nama community in the south of the mandated territory, resisted arrests in May 1922, the Administrator, Gysbert Hofmeyr, asked for aircraft. Jan Smuts sent Pierre van Ryneveld with two DH.9s, which arrived on 26 May and on 29–30 May bombed and strafed Guruchas. About 100 Bondelswarts died, women and children among them. Van Ryneveld later wrote: “it was easy for us floating above the operation dropping our bombs.” The Permanent Mandates Commission held an unprecedented inquiry, and the Haitian delegate Dantes Bellegarde condemned the killing of women and children “in the name of the League of Nations”. The SAAF also flew against the Rehoboth rising in 1925. 結果 The Bondelswarts surrendered on 7 June 1922; the League of Nations’ Permanent Mandates Commission opened an inquiry. The unofficial SAAF history records no casualties for this operation; Wikipedia gives about 100 Bondelswarts killed. The quotations are as given by Wikipedia.
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| East African campaignAbyssinia, Eritrea and Italian SomalilandSouth African Air Force | 1940年～1941年 | イタリア | Ju 86 | |||
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Bombing, fighter and army co-operation operations against Italian forces. The SAAF’s first raid of the war was flown by converted Ju 86s of 12 Squadron against Italian positions at Moyale in June 1940. By December 1940 Wikipedia counts ten SAAF squadrons and a flight, with 94 aircraft, in East Africa. 2 Squadron, later the Flying Cheetahs, claimed eight Italian aircraft in the campaign. The SAAF’s own history credits it with a large part in the conquest of Italy’s African empire. 結果 Italian East Africa fell in 1941. The date of the first raid differs: 11 June 1940 (Wikipedia’s WWII article) or 16 June 1940 (its 12 Squadron article). Other aircraft types used in the campaign were not itemised in the sources checked.
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| 西部砂漠戦線North AfricaSouth African Air Force | 1941年～1943年 | ドイツとイタリア | 33,991 | |||
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Fighter, fighter-bomber, bomber and reconnaissance squadrons with the Desert Air Force. The desert made the SAAF’s wartime reputation. Wikipedia records eleven SAAF squadrons flying 33,991 sorties and claiming 342 enemy aircraft destroyed between 1941 and 1943; the unofficial SAAF history puts peak South African air force strength in North Africa at 8,976 people. 1, 12, 21 and 24 Squadrons went on to support the invasion of Sicily from Malta. 結果 Axis forces in North Africa surrendered in May 1943. The 342 aircraft are SAAF claims as reported by Wikipedia. Aircraft types by squadron were not itemised in the sources checked.
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| Madagascar campaignOperation IroncladSouth African Air Force | 1942 | Vichy France | Maryland, Beaufort | 401 | ||
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Reconnaissance, photography and ground support against Vichy French forces. Two SAAF flights with Marylands and Beauforts flew reconnaissance and photographic sorties before the British landings and supported the ground campaign afterwards. Wikipedia counts 401 SAAF sorties between May and November 1942. 結果 Vichy forces on Madagascar surrendered in November 1942.
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| Italy, the Balkans and the Warsaw airliftMediterranean theatreSouth African Air Force | 1943年～1945年 | ドイツ | リベレーター | |||
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Fighter, bomber and heavy-bomber squadrons, including supply drops to the Warsaw Uprising. Eight SAAF squadrons fought in the Italian campaign, according to Wikipedia, and SAAF bombers reached the Balkans and the Romanian oilfields at Ploiești. The best remembered episode is Warsaw. When the Polish Home Army rose in August 1944, the Liberators of 31 and 34 Squadrons, part of 2 Wing SAAF under 205 Group RAF, flew the long route from Celone and Brindisi to drop supplies, 181 sorties in August and September. In 1992 Poland awarded the Warsaw Uprising Cross to 67 veterans of the two squadrons. 結果 War in Europe ended in May 1945. SAAF-only losses over Warsaw were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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| Berlin Airliftプレインフェア作戦South African Air Force | 1948年～1949年 | Dakota | 1,240 | |||
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Twenty SAAF aircrews flew RAF Dakotas into Berlin. Not a combat operation, but the SAAF’s first international deployment after the war. Twenty aircrews flew RAF Dakotas on 1,240 missions and delivered 4,133 tons of supplies to West Berlin. 結果 The Soviet blockade was lifted in May 1949.
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| Korean War2 Squadron, the Flying CheetahsSouth African Air Force (2 Squadron) | 1950年～1953年 | 北朝鮮と中国 | F-51D Mustang, F-86F Sabre | 12,405 | 78 | |
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Fighter-bomber squadron with the USAF’s 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing: interdiction and close air support. South Africa sent one squadron and kept it there for the whole war. 2 Squadron sailed for Japan on 25 September 1950 with 50 officers and 157 other ranks, flew its first mission from K-9 and K-24 at Pyongyang on 19 November 1950, and spent most of the war on ground attack in F-51D Mustangs. It was dangerous work in a piston fighter: 74 of the 95 Mustangs were lost. In January 1953 the squadron converted to F-86F Sabres and flew its first jet mission on 16 March 1953. Among the eight pilots captured was Denis Earp, later Chief of the Air Force. The squadron received the US and Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citations. 結果 The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. Sources differ: 34 pilots killed (unofficial SAAF history, Wikipedia main article) or 33 (Wikipedia’s 2 Squadron article); 95 or 94 Mustangs; 12,405 or 12,067 sorties; sailing on 25 or 26 September 1950.
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| South African Border WarNamibia and Angola, including Cassinga and Cuito CuanavaleSouth African Air Force | 1966–1989 | SWAPO (PLAN), Angola (FAPLA) and Cuba | Mirage F1CZ/F1AZ, Mirage III, Buccaneerand 9 more | 22 | ||
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Close air support, interdiction, air defence, troop lift and casualty evacuation for the SADF against SWAPO’s PLAN, Angola’s FAPLA and Cuban forces. The war is dated from a police clash with SWAPO at Omugulugwombashe on 26 August 1966. For years it was a helicopter and light-aircraft war; the jets first fought at Cassinga on 4 May 1978, when, according to Wikipedia, four Canberras, five Buccaneers and four Mirage IIIs attacked before C-130s and Transalls dropped paratroops and Pumas and Super Frelons lifted them out. South Africa calls Cassinga a SWAPO headquarters; SWAPO and Angola call it a refugee camp and give 624 dead; the TRC found in 1998 that it was a military facility from the SADF’s perspective but could not establish the civilian toll. Operation Savannah in 1975–76 had already taken South African columns deep into Angola. Major Johan Rankin shot down two MiG-21s, on 6 November 1981 and 5 October 1982, the only MiG-21s downed in the war per the SAAF history; in September 1985 Impalas destroyed six Angolan helicopters. Over Cuito Cuanavale (14 August 1987–23 March 1988) Cuban-flown MiG-23s and Soviet air defences challenged the ageing, embargo-bound SAAF: an F1CZ damaged by a MiG-23 missile crash-landed at Rundu on 27 September 1987, and an F1AZ was lost to an SA-13 with its pilot. Cuban MiG-23s bombed Calueque on 27 June 1988. Fidel Castro called Cuito an overwhelming victory; South Africa says it stopped FAPLA’s offensive on Mavinga; most historians cited by Wikipedia call it a stalemate. 結果 The last South African troops left the Cuito Cuanavale area by 30 August 1988 and the SAAF withdrew from Namibia in 1989, according to the unofficial SAAF history. Air losses at Cuito Cuanavale are contested: South African sources acknowledge two Mirage F1s and a Bosbok; Cuban and Angolan claims are higher, and South African claims of Angolan and Cuban aircraft destroyed are disputed. All Cassinga casualty figures are those of the parties.
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| UN Force Intervention Brigade, eastern DRCMONUSCOSouth African Air Force (16 Squadron and Oryx detachment) | 2013–2024 | M23 | Rooivalk, Oryx | |||
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Rooivalk attack helicopters and Oryx transports with MONUSCO’s Force Intervention Brigade. Three Rooivalks deployed to Goma in October 2013 and flew their first combat mission on 4 November 2013 against M23 positions near the Rwandan border, destroying a 14.5 mm gun position and an ammunition bunker. The defence minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, said “M23 had to retreat because of the Rooivalk”. Over the following years they fired thousands of rockets and 20 mm rounds. From August 2022 they were grounded for want of support funding; in December 2024 the three airframes were flown home in a chartered Il-76, in what defenceWeb described as very poor condition. 結果 M23 was defeated in November 2013; the Rooivalks last flew in August 2022 and came home in December 2024.
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| SADC Mission in MozambiqueCabo DelgadoSANDF, including SAAF elements | from 2021 | Insurgents in Cabo Delgado | ||||
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Air transport and helicopter support for the SADC force against the Islamic State-linked insurgency. South Africa contributed an approved force of 1,495 to the SADC mission, which began on 15 July 2021, including air force elements. defenceWeb reported in February 2024 that troops in Mozambique and the DRC were at risk because the attack-helicopter support contract had lapsed. Corporal Tebogo Radebe of the Special Forces was killed on 20 December 2021. 結果 The end date of the SADC mission was not confirmed in the sources checked. Aircraft types deployed and the mission’s end date were not confirmed in the sources checked.
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| SADC Mission in the DRCSAMIDRCSANDF, including SAAF Oryx | 2023年～2025年 | M23/AFC | Oryx | |||
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Oryx helicopters supported the SADC force. The SADC mission began on 15 December 2023 with up to 2,900 South African troops. The air force could support it only thinly: defenceWeb reported in April 2025 that one of three deployed Oryx was serviceable, and the Rooivalks that might have escorted them had not flown since 2022. When M23/AFC took Goma in January 2025, South African units were caught in the fighting; ten soldiers died. SADC heads of state ended the mandate on 13 March 2025. 結果 SADC ended the mandate on 13 March 2025; withdrawal began on 29 April 2025. Rwanda’s role in the M23 offensive is described by UN experts and denied by Rwanda; it is not assessed here.
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- saairforce.co.za: history of the SAAF (Aviation Corps)Six officers qualified at Alexandersfontein in April 1914; South African Aviation Corps formed 5 February 1915, operations in German South West Africa from 6 May 1915; 26 Squadron RFC; Beauchamp-Proctor VC.
- saairforce.co.za: between the warsRand Revolt 10–15 March 1922 (127 hours, two aircraft lost); Bondelswarts 1922; Rehoboth 1925; local Wapiti, Hartbees and Tutor production; Waterkloof opened 1 August 1938.
- saairforce.co.za: World War TwoStrength in September 1939; Madagascar; Sicily; 181 Warsaw supply sorties by 31 and 34 Squadrons; 44,417 personnel at the end of 1944; 33,347 aircrew trained by 1945.
- saairforce.co.za: the post-war yearsBerlin Airlift: 20 aircrews, 4,133 tons in 1,240 missions; grey-blue uniform July 1949; springbok roundel November 1950.
- saairforce.co.za: Korea2 Squadron sailed 25 September 1950; first mission 19 November 1950; 10,373 Mustang sorties, 74 of 95 lost; 2,032 Sabre sorties, 4 of 22 lost; 34 pilots killed, 8 prisoners.
- saairforce.co.za: the Border War26 August 1966 start; Savannah; Cassinga 4 May 1978; Rankin’s MiG-21 kills 6 November 1981 and 5 October 1982; Impalas destroyed six helicopters in September 1985; withdrawal 1988–1989.
- defenceWeb: SAAF urgently seeking spares for four types in its fleet (3 April 2025)Requests for information for C-212, Gripen, Oryx and C-130BZ spares; about 6,800 of 12,000 budgeted hours flown.
- defenceWeb: SAAF Rooivalks return from the DRC (2 December 2024)Guy Martin. Deployed October 2013 with the Force Intervention Brigade; first combat 4 November 2013 against M23; last flight August 2022; three airframes flown home 27 November–2 December 2024.
Figures verified 2026-10-01. Back to the South African Air Force.