Son of James Warburton Begbie and Frances Helen Begbie, of Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa. Took off at 16.12 hrs from RAF Pocklington, Yorkshire to attack Dusseldorf, Germany. Massive raid (Last on Dusseldorf of the war by bomber command) with 992 aircraft taking part. (561 Lancaster's, 400 Halifax's and 31 Mosquitoes). The raid resulted in 5,000 houses destroyed or badly damaged including steel manufacturers, 7 industrial firms were destroyed and a further 18 seriously damaged. Over 678 people on the ground were killed and another 1,000 were injured. 19 Aircraft were lost (11 Halifax's and 8 Lancaster's. Halifax MZ798 was hit by machine gun fire from another bomber in the friendly force and then intercepted by a night fighter thought to have been flown by Lt. Wolfram Mockel of 4./NJG2 at a height of 3,500 metres over Brussels at 19.42 hrs. 3 Crew members were killed and the remainder survived after falling over liberated territory in Belgium. Lt. Mockel was made a POW on the 24/25th December 1944. They shot own a Mosquito from 613 Squadron on a patrol over the Ardennes, an hour and a half later they ran out of fuel and baled out of his Ju88 G-1 4R+BM. He is thought to have survived the war (5 Kills-unconfirmed). See also http://www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/raf1944/begbie.html?hl=de&q=south+africa&ics=1&fr=20
5 Sep 2026: Unit "102 (R.A.F.) Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
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