A Bomber Pilot's Supreme Sacrifice For His Comrades

World War II pilot Edwin Swales received a posthumous Victoria Cross for saving the lives of his crew. Graham Jooste tells the moving story of this South African hero.

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Edwin (Ted) Essery Swales was born in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, to a farming family from the Heatonville District, on 3 July 1915. After the death of his father during the influenza epidemic of 1918 to 1919, the family moved to Durban. Upon leaving school, Swales found employment with Barclays Bank.

He also joined the Natal Mounted Rifles, a citizen force regiment, and rose to the rank of sergeant major.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Swales went up north with his regiment and saw action in Kenya, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and in the North African desert.

In January 1942, he was accepted into the South African Air Force, and trained at Kimberley.

In August 1943, Swales was seconded to the Royal Air Force (RAF), while retaining his South African Air Force uniform and rank. Following a successful period of training in England at RAF Little Rissington in Gloucestershire, he was assigned to fly heavy bombers.

His flying ability was of such a high standard that he was posted to the elite Pathfinder Group attached to 582 Squadron and based at Little Staughton in Bedfordshire.

On bombing raids, the Pathfinders went in first to light up the target with flares, giving the main force a precise point to aim at and so increasing their accuracy. Some Pathfinder squadrons were equipped with the fast, unarmed, twin-engine De Havilland Mosquito. Others, like the one Swales joined, flew four-engine Avro Lancasters.

The Pathfinders usually accepted only experienced pilots who had completed a full tour of operations on bombers. Swales had never spent any time as a bomber pilot; he went straight into the Pathfinders, a very rare occurrence indeed.