Identity
Person No.
32731
Old ROH no.
2124
Service No.
P1/33453
Last Name
First Name
Michael Hope
Initials
M H
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
27
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,781
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, in North American F-51 Mustang #330. Lt M.H. Rorke was one of three pilots preparing to take off from K-16 on their third mission of the day, their target being a well camouflaged supply dump near Singye. During his take of run, Lt Rorke's aircraft became airborne three quarters down the runway, but failed to climb higher than approximately 10 feet, and swung slowly towards a stranded B29 bomber at the end of the runway. As the Mustang's left wing began to drop, Lt Rorke jettisoned his napalm tanks, possibly in a last attempt to avoid disaster, but crashed into the B29 and the exploding napalm engulfed both aircraft
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Lieutenant
Regiment
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Army
Defence Force
UDF 24,808
Union Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Tanggok, Nam District, Busan, South Korea
Address
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
Grave 1210
Unit History
Part of
Notes
ref. 85 years of SAAF
Research notes
5 Sep 2026: Unit "2 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
Citations
Unknown
External References
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea
open source ↗
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK), Busan — South African Korean War dead.
Stories 1
Lt M.H. Rorke was one of three pilots preparing to take off from K-16 on their third mission of the day, their target being a well camouflaged supply dump near Singye. During his take of run, Lt Rorke's aircraft became airborne three quarters down the runway, but failed to climb higher than approximately 10 feet, and swung slowly towards a stranded B29 bomber at the end of the runway. As the Mustang's left wing began to drop, Lt Rorke jettisoned his napalm tanks, possibly in a last attempt to avoid disaster, but crashed into the B29 and the exploding napalm engulfed both aircraft. He was buried in the UN cemetery at Pusan.
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.