I encourage anyone that  has more information (Flight Log Book entries) or photos on 112 Squadron please send an e-mail to   raf_112_sqdn@yahoo.com before the history is lost.

112 Squadron Logbook Extracts

Reginald  W  Drown, 1190809, RAF 112 Sqdn (Shark), 24/4/43 to 19/5/44 Flight Log Book Extracts

1940 Extract from F/L Jack Groves Pilot Log Book

1941 Extract from F/L Jack Groves Pilot Log Book

1941 Extract from Plt Off later F/L Neville "Bowks" Bowker Pilot Log Book

Spelling is as written in the book  

I have no details for May, June or July 1941 in Nevilles Flight Log it picks up again as follows:

September 1941

Dear Rob,

 I think I have a correction but could be wrong. Neville arrived in Crete on 21st April 1941 and left on the "Orion" on 29th May 1941.He said Crete was an exhausting scramble and they were flying whenever which apart from attacking the enemy kept the aircraft moving so that they weren't strafed as there were so few. In the log book he has 30hrs for Greece and 35.00 hrs for Crete , not five as in the Squadron claims. If you total the page it comes to the 263.40hrs +/-. I dont think they had time to write up logs but in any case now believe most of the paperwork was destroyed as the Germans advanced. There is a long gap to August 16th before he logs more. I have an idea that during this time he was with the escort who flew King Peter of Yugoslavia to South Africa. How I know is because the German Consul in Mozambique (then Portuguese East Africa) was a personal friend of the Bowkers and he happened to see and recognize Neville and they managed to get out in time before being arrested. This seems to be the only time according to his log that it could have been. They were in a Flying Boat Another thing not quite clear in my mind is that Neville joined the SRAF (Southern Rhodesian Air Force) not the South African Air Force and that is why they were sent to RAF in Iraq to finish their training. His log shows this. Am I being tiresome? (Not at all Colleen) There is amongst the photos one of the Rhodesian Squadron who were trained with Neville and sent to Iraq. Neville from what I remember is 10th from the right , third row down.

All the very best for 2006 

Colleen Bowker

Notes about the Light Cruiser Orion; 

During the night of 28/29 May, the evacuation of Crete began.

Heraklion, Force B - light cruisers DIDO, AJAX , ORION with destroyers HOTSPUR, KIMBERLEY ,HEREWARD, JACKAL, DECOY, and IMPERIAL departed Alexandria on the 28th.

En route on the 28th, both AJAX and IMPERIAL were near missed by air bombs. Damage to AJAX also included an aerial torpedo hit which caused AJAX to return to base. Destroyer IMPERIAL was able to continue.

The force arrived at Heraklion at 2330 and set off at 0300/29th.

Bombing attacks while the force was returning badly damaged destroyer HEREWARD (Lt W. J. Munn) which was later sunk after being left.

Light cruiser ORION (Captain G. R. B. Back) was hit by German bombs on A turret at 0900 and on the bridge at 1045. The cruiser was also near missed at 0930, causing damage.

Cruiser ORION arrived at Alexandria at 2000/28th.

The cruiser was later taken to Simonstown for temporary repair. She departed Aden en route on 29 June. Light cruiser ORION was under repair at Simonstown from 14 July to 5 August. The cruiser then proceeded to Mare Island , California , where she was under repair from 5 September to 15 February 1942 .  

Colleen Bowker replies, I think the Orion was the last of the fleet to get away from Crete and Neville said it had three direct hits with the one ending up in the sick bay doing a terrible amount of damage. He was lucky because he had escaped from a German Field hospital with the help of a young girl and the doctors on board sent him straight to the ships sick bay but he didn’t stay there because he said it was overcrowded with wounded and airless and went straight up on deck again, and on his way to the deck they got the first hit which hit the sick bay.  They limped into Alexandria and he was sent to the hospital there and was also treated for scarlet fever.  There is a gap in his log book before he rejoined 112 again.

Following From http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-RAF-I/UK-RAF-I-10.html

Meanwhile the Royal Air Force ground-crews were making their way to the evacuation points. Lack of food and sleep, frequent misdirection, and inability to use lights for fear of air attack gave a nightmare quality to most of the journeys. No. 112 Squadron, which had just reached Athens from the Epirus, had much less trouble than most of the other contingents and was among the first to be taken off. The Squadron diary tells their story:

(22nd April.) In pitch darkness we moved off, after throwing all equipment, etc., into the sea, and we passed Eleusis village without incident. Here our convoy met the Army stream … and at a deadly snail's pace the vast cavalcade crept on. Nerves were frayed and any suggestion of a light brought forth a chorus of 'Put that bloody light out' from front and rear. As it was imperative to use lights now and again to negotiate the cliff road, the invective was almost continuous … The road was strewn with overturned vehicles … one estimate was three hundred overturned on the Corinth–Argos section alone … Just before Corinth a convoy of pack mules got mixed up in the general melée … we must pay tribute to the magnificent way the soldiers coaxed and handled these animals. On our arrival at Argos, endless units were in groups for miles down the road, but gradually the R.A.F. was sorted out and moved off to the aerodrome. By now (23rd) eleven thousand Army and Air Force had reached Argos, only to learn that two of the ships to take us off had been dive-bombed and were burning—one loaded with high explosive. This blew up with a terrific crash, but passed almost unnoticed in a bombing raid … [A description follows of various air attacks, including the one which destroyed the Hurricanes.] At nightfall we again moved through Argos and dispersed on the hillsides three miles beyond, this time minus blankets and kit, and it being too cold to sleep, finished a continuous forty-eight hours without sleep. Dawn (24th) and still no word of a ship, but a little later the first three Me.109's took a look round … The usual dive-bombing started shortly afterwards. Later in the day Me.110's flew far and wide at 3,000 feet seeking objectives … The squadron had two narrow escapes when sticks of bombs dropped right across our lines … A check-up revealed that a party of airmen were missing … Towards sunset we were all told to be ready to march to Nauplia. Relief showed on all our faces and no one asked the distance. The six mile were covered in excellent time and we arrived at the water's edge in good order without incident. As the harbour was too shallow for large ships to put alongside, invasion barges were brought in by the Navy and everyone looked on in silent admiration of real efficiency. The last on board arrived about midnight, making seventy sleepless hours in all, and all lay down anywhere, anyhow, to a sleep of sheer exhaustion, oblivious of any dangers the sea might hold and with full confidence as ever, in the Navy.

Thanks to the naval efficiency which so impressed No. 112 Squadron, and a corresponding lack of enterprise on the part of the Luftwaffe and the Italian fleet, the plan of night evacuation worked miraculously well. Doubtless with Dunkirk in mind, Hitler had

In 1934 the Rhodesian Parliament approved the offer of £10,000 to assist in the defence of the British Empire. The Imperial Defence Committee suggested that the best use of the money would be the provision of an air training unit in Rhodesia. Accordingly, de Havilland Aircraft was commissioned to establish an elementary training school, complete with aircraft. The school took form as an Air Unit of the Rhodesia Regiment in November 1935. The military personnel served on a Territorial (volunteer reserve) basis. The unit was soon renamed the Southern Rhodesia Air Unit (SRAU), and the first trainee pilots were awarded their wings in May 1938.

The South Rhodesian Air Force was first established in September 1939 as a transition of a humble Southern Rhodesia Air Unit trained in the UK during the 1930s, which also became the No. 1 Squadron.

The SRAF lasted as independent organisation for only about six months. The war in Europe was developing rapidly and unfavourably for the British prompting rapid mobilisation of overseas resources for the war effort. In April 1940, SRAF was therefore absorbed into the Royal Air Force and No.1 Sqn redesignated 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF. Soon, the Rhodesian Air Training Group (RATG) was initiated as part of the Empire Training Scheme. During the course of the war, RATG expanded to of four Service Flying Training Schools, an Initial Training Wing, a combined Air Observers and Air Gunners School and a Central Flying School for instructors. Over 7600 pilots and 2300 navigators were trained in Rhodesia during the war years.

Later in the war two more RAF units received the name "Rhodesian": No. 266 Sqn and No. 44 Sqn.

Immediately after the end of hostilities in Europe and the Far East the training establishments were rapidly reduced to much smaller capacity, but training of RAF crews in Rhodesia would eventually continue until 1954.

Greetings,

I have just found a picture of my father, Flt. Lieut. L. T. F. Edmett, as he finished the war, in the long photo 

of the squadron photographed in front of a hangar. 

He evidently hadn't reached that level at the time of the photograph but was promoted I believe while in the 
Desert where he spent most of his time, some 3 years 10 months,  so he possibly transferred between squadrons 

after the one he was in got hammered by the German air force as he never mentioned going to Europe. 
I was 8 when he got back so my memories of the time may not be too clear but he did talk about things after a while 

although he died early at 54 when I was 18 which was a pity - could have learned a lot from him I guess had he survived longer.

So I must thank you for the photograph and the fascinating information on your site which I have passed on to 

my brother - the copy of the photograph that I had disappeared when my ex departed along with 
all my family photo albums and documents as well as my father's medals, Africa Star, '39-'45 Star etc. so I am 

very thankful to have been able at long last to find another copy of the picture.

All the Best

Terry Edmett

Western Australia

Neville Bowker in training

In August 1939, with war in Europe increasingly seen as inevitable, the Air Unit was called up to full-time duty and deployed to Kenya, to guard against a potential threat from Italian Somaliland. In April 1940 the unit was absorbed in to the Royal Air Force as No.237 (Rhodesia) Squadron. Two other Rhodesian-manned squadrons in World War Two were No.44 (Rhodesia) Sqn and No.266 (Rhodesia) Sqn, RAF.

In May 1940 the Rhodesian Air Training Group (RATG) started training aircrew for the Empire Training Scheme. The RATG eventually comprised a total of four Service Flying Training Schools (SFTS), an Initial Training Wing, a combined Air Observers and Air Gunners School and a Central Flying School for instructors. All the construction costs and a substantial part of the annual running costs were paid for by the Southern Rhodesian Government. Over 7,600 pilots and 2,300 navigators were trained by the RATG during the War.

Immediately after the war, the RATG was reduced to a 'care and maintenance' basis, but by 1946 the Cold War had begun and the RAF needed new aircrew again. Training was restarted at the end of 1946 and was to continue until 1954.

On 28 November 1947, the Rhodesian Government announced the establishment of a Southern Rhodesia Air Force (SRAF) as a permanent unit. The initial equipment of the SRAF was a collection of well-worn trainers and transports previously operated by the RATG. Additional aircraft came from South Africa, and in 1951 two squadrons of Spitfires were received. The SRAF became a jet operator in December 1953 with the arrival of the first de Havilland Vampire FB.9s.

In September 1953 the SRAF became the Rhodesian Air Force, as the colonies of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland joined together to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. On 15 October 1954 the prefix 'Royal' was conferred by the Queen - so becoming the Royal Rhodesian Air Force (RRAF).

Neville Bowker in the Uniform of The Southern Rhodesian Air Unit

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