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226110
Lt. Theodore Vlok
Royal Air Force 37 Squadron
from:Piketberg, Cape, South Africa
(d.6th July 1944)
My uncle Theo Vlok, who I never met since he was killed in action at age 22 in Italy in 1944 before I was born, was like me a South African, and served in the RAF although he received his flight training at Lyttelton near Pretoria, at East London and Youngsfield in the Cape from 1941.
He was apparently very popular and talented as a navigator in Lancaster and Wellington bombers. His squadron was based in a castle in Foggia, South Italy, from where they carried out bombing raids into Northern Italy and Austria. He was there from March 1944 till his death in a bombing sortie over Vienna, Austria in early July 1944.
His Wellington was shot down by a German fighter after successfully dropping their bombs on a German airfield, and went down in flames with only one survivor, the wireless operator Jimmy Mitchell, who managed to bale out. Charlie Keighly was apparently the pilot, and Andy Andrews the co-pilot.