"The Aegean Pirates - The History of 15 Squadron SAAF in WW2" by Bouwer & Thompson

[vikingBerserker]

Aegean Pirates.JPG

ISBN: 978-0-620-43076-0



I happened to stumble across a write up of this book awhile back and after a couple of years was able to find and purchase a copy. This book was first published in 2009 and did not have a very big press run which can make it a challenge to find. This book traces the complete history of the 15 Squadron (Bomber/Reconnaissance) of the South African Air Force in WW2 until disbanded at the end of the war.

The book is 263 pages long with tons of pictures and is broken into numerous Chapters & Appendix's:

There are 4 Chapters about the complete history of the unit totaling 150 pages.

Endnotes that go over Commanding Officers, Battle Honors, Awards and a Roll of Honor for another 10 pages.

6 Appendix's that go over Aircraft Colors/Markings, a number of color profiles of their aircraft, the Aircraft Serial Numbers of the 5 different types of aircraft they flew ranging from the Ju-86 and ending with the Baltimores, a complete listing of everybody who served in the 15 Squadron including ground crew and a few copies of the newspapers the Squadron issued making up the remaining 100+ pages.

The book is pretty straight forward about the problems they had in keeping aircraft in the air and the number of aircraft and crews lost due to mishaps (which I've not seen a lot of from other Squadron Histories) as well as their accomplishments and achievements.

If you by chance find this book, it's a really good read and one of the handful of books I've ever been able to find on the SAAF during WW2.

[Wildcat]

Very cool, sounds like an interesting book!