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Home African Aviation Series Contact Us / Order form . . . 01 AT-6 Harvard 02 The Eagles of Zwartkop 03 Canberra 04 Eye in the Sky 05 African Air Forces 06 Chopper Pilot 07 Passion for Flight 08 2 Squadron in Korea 09 Rhodesian Air Force 10 Serve to Save 11 Springbok Fighter Victory 1 12 The men who went to Warsaw 13 85 Years of the SAAF 14 Sweeping circles in the sky 15 Douglas C-47 Dakota in SAAF 16 Helicopters of the SAAF 17 17 Squadron 18 Zero Error Margin 19 20 Springbok Fighter Victory 2 21 22 Silver Falcons - 40 Years 23 Cheetah 24 Springbok Fighter Victory 3 25 Springbok Fighter Victory 4 26 Springbok Fighter Victory 5 .

African Aviation Series No. 3 CANBERRA in Southern Africa Service Michael Hamence & Winston Brent ISBN 0958388040 The book is in two parts – the first 50 pages covers the history of the Canberra in Rhodesian Air Force service and the next 39 pages covers the history of the South African Air Force Canberras that served with 12 Squadron. It reveals for the first time South Africa’s interest to investigate and evaluate before purchase of 8 British Handley Page Victor “V” bombers. It is A4, with 96 pages and 7 colour pages and plenty of B&W photographs. REVIEW We’re not sure who Michael Hamence is, but Winston Brent is well known amongst the aircraft spotting fraternity for his unique guide to African air forces. The guide is a masterful example of tedious research and the Canberra book reflects a similar level of study. Unlike many locally published books this one contains some amusing anecdotes of Rhodesian Cannies. Being a spotter Winston pays special attention to tail numbers with a faithful record of all aircraft supplied to the Royal Rhodesian Air Force and South Africa. Whilst the Rhodesian era is related in considerable detail, we couldn’t help feeling that there must be many more stories about SAAF ops. Indeed the book seems to run out of steam beyond the initial acquisition stage during the mid-sixties. One interesting revelation is the SAAF’s evaluation of the Handley Page Victor Bomber, which the South African government came close to ordering – indeed serial numbers were allocated before the decision was made to go ahead with Canberras. There are also hints in the South African section of more covert operations. It’s known for instance that SAAF Cannies on occasion flew on behalf of the Rhodesian Air Force and the book makes no mention of this. There is no mention of Classic Jet’s Canberra which crashed not long after it was flown to Cape Town. There are some intriguing never before published photos, in particular the shots of the Russian satellite tracking ship, Kapushka, which was intercepted off the Eastern Cape in 1989. Nevertheless it’s a book which I couldn’t put down and it’s at a reasonable price too.