March 2018 FLYPAST 19Above, left to right
PK350 with ‘Jack’ Malloch
at the controls.F.22 PK350 proved
a crowd favourite
whenever it made a
public appearance. The
‘squadron codes’ were
‘Jack’ Malloch’s initials.F.22 RRAF64 at New
Sarum in a short-lived
scheme. Unfortunately,
the badge below the
exhausts is barely
discernible; however, it
appears to be the RRAF
badge.the UK to train on Vampires in
preparation for arrival of the type
later that year.
During a low-level formation
exercise Lt Ray Maritz was killed
in SR84 (the former PK649) near
Salisbury on December 14, 1953.
The following year, on June 14,
SR88 suffered extensive damage,
fortunately non-fatal for the pilot.
With the ‘merger’ of Southern
Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and
Nyasaland in 1953, the SRAF
became the Royal Rhodesian Air
Force on October 15, 1954. By then
Vampires had become entrenched in
the ground-attack role and the jets
were later supplemented by Percival
Provosts. It was time to bid a fond
farewell to the surviving Spitfires.
On December 18, 1954, F.
SR64 touched down after the type’s
last operational flight. The Spitfire’s
brief, and somewhat unspectacular,
service in Rhodesia had ended.
BURIED TREASURE?
Two F.22s, SR64 (PK350) and
SR65 (PK355), became ‘gate guards’
at New Sarum and Thornhill
respectively. During 1955 Syria
acquired several airframes, although
the exact number has been a source
of speculation. Some sources quote
seven while others believe ten were
crated and shipped to the Middle
Eastern country via the port of Beira
in Mozambique in the April of that
year.
Rumours of a third Spitfire having
‘survived’ have continued to do the
rounds in southern Africa for several
years. In 1997 the author met an
individual at Virginia Airport in
Durban, South Africa, who claimed
to have been a member of the RRAF
party escorting the boxed airframes
from Rhodesia to Mozambique.
He discussed his air force career
at length and proceeded to claim
one of the Syrian-bound crates had
been removed from the train and
buried alongside a railway siding
in the Rhodesian bush. He alleged
that personnel accompanying
the consignment were unhappy
when they discovered the ultimate
destination of the Spitfires.
He promised to provide proof of
his story, but sadly died in a vehicle
accident within a week of our
encounter. A subsequent background
check of his service-life story proved
to be 100% accurate.BRIEF FAME
Spitfire F.22 RRAF64 (the former
SR64 and PK350) remained at New
Sarum until it was taken down from
its pylon in the mid-1970s. This was
ostensibly for refurbishment for the
air force museum at Gwelo, but in
reality, it had been acquired by James
‘Jack’ Malloch. He was a formerSRAF pilot who participated in the
first ferry flight and later owned Fish
Air, Rhodesian Air Services and Air
Trans Africa.
Restoration started in 1978 and
on March 29, 1980 the aircraft
completed its maiden post-
restoration flight in Malloch’s hands.
It became a firm favourite at airshows
and fly-ins over the next two years.
The Spitfire never achieved a formal
civilian identity.
On March 26, 1982, while filming
final footage for a documentary
titled Pursuit of a Dream, Malloch
encountered a particularly severe
hailstorm and PK350 crashed near
Goromorzi outside Harare, killing
the legendary airman. It’s understood
the remains of the aircraft were
subsequently acquired by a private
individual at Gwelo.
At Thornhill, RRAF65 was
also removed from display and
underwent a restoration programme.
Efforts to return this F.22 to the
air proved short-lived, given the
changing nature of priorities in what
became Zimbabwe in 1979, and the
airframe was re-assembled for static
display at the Zimbabwe Air Force
Museum in Gweru where it remains
to this day.With thanks to Peter Arnold and Nick
Miekle for assistance with additional
images.