G'day gents,
I'm late to the party with this, but I've just seen on another board that assorted SAAF documents are available online here:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/search-results.asp?searchType=browserefine&mediaarray=*&first_date=&last_date=&CatID=32&pageCount=21&query=scope%3Dair+54&queryType=1&pageNumber=1&sortSpec=first%5Fdate+desc
There are the standard issues, whole sections missing only to turn up in the wrong place, pages out of order, etc.
Can be extremely frustrating at times. For instance, in the 60 SAAF Operations Record Book (they used Mosquitoes...) there's a reference to a Mosquito having gone missing on 5 July 1943, and lo and behold there's a German claim that day (05.07.43 Fw. Vogel: 1 1./JG 77 Mosquito - - Reference: JG 77 Lists f. 2429) but do you think I can find the bloody serial number of the Mossie? Would like to attribute its loss in my database but...
Either way, couple of samples. When things go well it is:
Then again, at other times, it's all:
All the above is from July 1944.
There's similar stuff all through the file (NB - each one is 250 megs!) - enemy fighters seem to be willing to chase for 10-15 minutes before giving up, generally speaking.
Some good mission summaries some months, going to see if I can draw some lessons about loss rates, average sortie length, number of interceptions, etc.
