A wartime commander who confronted the limits of long-range air supply
Before the 1944 Warsaw airlift, he warned that the mission offered little military prospect and would incur heavy losses, but it went ahead.
James Thom Durrant was a South African Air Force officer and pilot who commanded reconnaissance and bomber formations in Africa and the Mediterranean during the Second World War. In 1944 he led No. 205 Group RAF from Italy during the Warsaw Uprising airlift, exposing the tension between military feasibility and political obligation in a mission constrained by extreme distance, night flying and enemy defences. After the war he became Director-General of the South African Air Force, but resigned amid conflict with the National Party government’s de-Anglicisation policy and the defence minister.
Also known as: James Thom Durrant
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1933–1934Completed the South African Air Force Permanent Force Cadet Course and qualified as a pilot
- 1940–1941Commanding officer, No. 40 Squadron SAAF, East Africa
- 1941–1942Commanding officer, No. 24 Squadron SAAF, Western Desert campaign
- 1942–1944Commanding officer, No. 3 Bomber Wing SAAF, North Africa, Sicily and Italy
- 1944–1945Commander, No. 205 Group RAF, directing the Warsaw airlift from bases in Italy
- 1945–1946Air officer commanding, No. 231 Heavy Bomber Group RAF, Far East
- 1946–1952Director-General of the South African Air Force
Related historical events
- 1943–1945The Italian Campaign and the Fall of MussoliniBomber-wing commander in ItalyHe commanded No. 3 Bomber Wing in Sicily and Italy.
- 1944.08–10Warsaw UprisingRoyal Air Force commander who directed the airdropHe commanded the Warsaw airdrop from Italian bases and accepted the limits of long-range night air supply.
Post-war historical records and civic work
After leaving the air force in 1952, Durrant continued to work on the military-historical record and in municipal affairs. He served as a trustee of the South African National War Museum from October 1946 to December 1950, and in 1970 was appointed to its board of trustees once more as one of the Johannesburg City Council representatives. The December 1970 issue of the South African Military History Society's Military History Journal welcomed his return and reported that he had been extremely active as a member of the War Histories Advisory Committee responsible for the series of official histories recording the part played by South African forces in the Second World War, of which two volumes had appeared with several in the course of publication. On leaving the Air Force he had also made his mark in the commercial and business world, and he sat on the Johannesburg City Council as a councillor from 1969 to 1977. Having stepped back from commanding formations in wartime, he gave his war experience a public afterlife by helping to compile and preserve the South African forces' wartime record and by taking part in local government.