List of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan facilities in Southern Rhodesia

This article contains a list of the Southern Rhodesian facilities forming part of Joint Air Training Scheme which was a major programme for training South African Air Force, Royal Air Force and Allied air crews during World War II.^[1] However, RAF Training units would still be based in this country until a decade after the war had finished

A war-time Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) gave a recruit 50 hours of basic aviation instruction on a simple trainer like the Tiger Moth. Pilots who showed promise went on to training at a Service Flying Training School (SFTS). The Service Flying Training School provided advanced training for pilots, including fighter and multi-engined aircraft. Other trainees went on to different specialties, such as wireless, navigation or bombing and air gunnery.^[1]

During WW II

These are the units that formed the Rhodesia Air Training Group.^[2]

Unit Name/No.	Base	Major types of aircraft	Role	Opened	Disbanded	Comments
No. 25	Belvedere, Salisbury	Tiger Moth, Cornell & Harvard	EFTS	24 May 1940	16 November 1945[3]
No. 20	Cranborne, Salisbury	Harvard 1, 2, 2a, 3 and Oxford	SFTS	10 July 1940[3]	7 September 1945[3]
No. 27	Induna, Bulawayo	Tiger Moth & Cornell	EFTS	28 January 1940[3]	21 September 1945[3]
No. 23	Heany, Bulawayo	Oxford	SFTS	8 July 1941[3]	30 September 1945[3]
No. 21	Kumalo, Bulawayo	Oxford	SFTS	8 October 1940[3]	18 May 1945[3]
	Sauerdale, Bulawayo	Tiger Moth	EFTS			Planned, but base found to be unsuitable
No. 26	Guinea Fowl, Gwelo	Tiger Moth & Cornell	EFTS	August 1940	14 August 1945[3]
No. 22	Thornhill, Gwelo	Harvard 1, 2, 2a, 3	SFTS	25 March 1941[3]	30 September 1945[3]
No. 24 Bombing, Gunnery and Navigation	Moffat, Gwelo	Battle, Oxford and Anson	BGTS	12 May 1943[4]	13 April 1945 [4]
No. 24 Combined Air Observation School	Moffat, Gwelo	Battle, Oxford and Anson	BGTS	3 August 1941 [4]	12 May 1943 [3]	Split into 24 BGTS & 29 EANS
No. 29 Elementary Navigation School[4]	Moffat, Gwelo	Battle, Oxford and Anson	ANS	12 May 1943[3]	13 April 1945[4]
No. 28	Mount Hampden	Tiger Moth, Cornell & Harvard	EFTS	1 April 1941	30 October 1945[3]	Motto: Pana Maziñana ano Bururuka - Here Fledglings Take Wing
No. 31	Cranborne	Harvard (for Comms)	ARU	1 August 1941[3]
No. 32	Heany	Harvard (for Comms)	ARU	1 August 1941[3]
Rhodesian Central Flying School	Norton	All types used in Group	CFS	3 Sep 1941[3]	20 May 1942[3]	Renamed 33 FIS
No. 33	Norton	All types used in Group	FIS	20 May 1942[3]	9 May 1944[3]	Renamed CFS (SR)
Central Flying School (Southern Rhodesia)	Norton	All types used in Group	CFS	9 May 1944[3]	9 October 1945[3]
Communications Flight	Belvedere	Tiger Moths, Cornells & Harvards	Comms Flt	14 May 1940[3]	1 January 1946[3]	SRAF unit

Training aircraft

• Airspeed Oxford
• North American Harvard
• Tiger Moth
• Avro Anson
• Fairey Battle
• Fairchild Cornell

Glossary

• ANS — Air Navigation School
• ARU — Aircraft Repair Unit
• BGTS — Bombing and Gunnery Training School
• CFS — Central Flying School
• EFTS — Elementary Flying Training School
• FIS — Flying Instructors School
• SFTS — Service Flying Training School
• SRAF — Southern Rhodesia Air Force

After World War II

Unit Name/No.	Base	Major types of aircraft	Opened	Disbanded	Comments
No. 4 FTS	RAF Heany	Tiger Moth (until replaced by Chipmunk), Harvard, Anson	1 February 1947[3]	26 January 1954[3]
No. 5 FTS	RAF Thornhill	Tiger Moth (until replaced by Chipmunk), Harvard, Anson	23 April 1947[3] 22 January 1951	4 January 1948[3] 30 December 1953
No. 3 ANS	RAF Thornhill	Anson	5 January 1948[3]	28 September 1951[3]	formed from elements of both 4 & 5 FTS
No. 394 MU	RAF Heany		1 September 1947[3]	31 March 1954[3]
No. 395 MU	RAF Bulawayo		1 September 1947[3]	31 March 1954[3]
RATG Communications Squadron	RAF Kumalo	Ansons, Chipmunks & Harvards	1 September 1947[3]	31 March 1954[3]

For clarification; No.4 FTS & No.5 FTS initially functioned as complete Flying Training Schools with all three/four types at two different bases. After a short period, No.5 FTS was disbanded / redesignated as No.3 ANS specialising in Navigation training, sending all Tiger Moths & Harvards across to join No.4 FTS, and in return receiving No.4 FTS Ansons to add to its own. Three years later in 1951 the situation was reversed with the dissolution of No.3 ANS.

Training aircraft

• North American Harvard
• Tiger Moth
• Avro Anson
• de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk

Glossary

• ANS — Air Navigation School
• FTS — Flying Training School
• MU — Maintenance Unit
• RATG — Rhodesian Air Training Group

See also

• List of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan facilities in Australia
• List of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan facilities in Canada
• List of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan facilities in South Africa
• Aircrew brevet
• Ernest Lucas Guest
• Charles Warburton Meredith