SAAF’s heaviest loss in a single day in World War II remembered

The bravery and sacrifice of the 48 members of 31 and 34 squadrons of the South African Air Force (SAAF) who died in one day in the Italian Alps during World War II has been remembered at a moving service at the SAAF Memorial on Bays Hill in Pretoria.

Martin Urry, Chairman of the Alpine 44 Club, outlined that it was 82 years after the 48 men of the SAAF’s two squadrons lost their lives in October 1944 on a mission to fly supplies to the Italian partisans fighting in the Po Valley behind German lines.

He stressed the importance of holding the annual service to remember the tragedy in the Alps, and also to honour the memory of the airmen as well as the partisans, the ground crews and the families who bore the cost of war.

He said: “We remember the aircrews – volunteers all of them – carrying supplies to the partisans, whose struggle was largely hidden from the world.

We remember their courage, their comradeship and the terrible price that they paid.

We remember the ground crews at Celone in southern Italy, the mechanics and all those who prepared and serviced the aircraft.

Their work is often unseen, but every mission depended on them.

They formed a strong bond with their aircraft and their crew.

I cannot imagine their state of mind, indeed the whole squadron on the morning…when news filtered through that six aircraft had not returned from the previous night’s mission.” Reverend Trevor Slade, himself a former SAAF member with a short flying career, said the extreme and severe weather conditions and the action by the enemy made it an utterly dangerous mission.

So, it was no surprise that six Liberators crashed – five into the Alps and one into the sea.

He noted this tragic event was a profoundly important saga in the long history of the SAAF.

Martin Urry is the nephew of Major Selwyn Urry who was the pilot of 31 Squadron’s aircraft KH158.

Urry’s plane is believed to have crashed into the sea off Genoa but has never been found.

It was one of 20 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers which were to drop supplies to Italian partisans in north-west Italy in support of the Allied assault on the heavily fortified German defensive system known as the Gothic Line.