The detachment of our ground personnel who were at KASFAREET have been returned to us in anticipation of our receiving some aircraft in the near future. It is to be hoped that this is the case, but prospects are not very bright at the moment.
Field Marshall Smuts arrived by air at S.A. Base Camp late this afternoon and addressed a parade of all South African Air Force Units in the area. Lt.Col. Irvine, acting O.C. for the Base Camp, introduced the Field Marshal, who despite the fact that he was making his sixth address of the day and had travelled considerable distances by air during the day, spoke at length and with great vigour.
He referred to the work that had been done by the South African Air Force in the field and paid tribute to our country’s work in the air. We had not had our own Air Force in the last war, but in this we had become an entity as the South African Air Force and we now possessed a “soul of our own”.
At a subsequent informal “cocktail party” officers of the squadron were introduced to the Field Marshal and members of his party.