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vEtERANS tAlES

reinforced with some 160 tons of scrap
THE SOUTH AFRICAN AIR FORCE steel railway lines. Smaller intermediate
crossbeams connect the larger beams.
The foundation and earthworks contract
MEMORIAL (Pt 3) History by Sydney Fryer to the value of R16,000 were awarded to
the firm Katzen & Rodgers and started on
The Chief of the Air Force, Maj Gen BG May 1st 1962.
Viljoen appointed a committee to oversee
the erection of the Memorial. The contract for the superstructure and
remainder of the work was awarded to
The committee also included representa- Transvaal Construction (Pty) Ltd. The to-
tion from the SAAF Association: tal estimated cost, including the founda-
tions, now stood at R77,000, considerably
Col GT Moll, SAAF, Chairman Col DA more than the original estimates which
Du Toit, SAAF, Vice Chairman Officer the suspect nature of the ground condi did of course not envisage the special
Commanding, Swartkop Air Station DS tions. He however stated that the Bays foundation requirements. It was never-
Rogan, President of SAAFA Dr JVA Lep- Hill area was probably the best spot in the theless agreed to proceed with the project
pan, Past President of SAAFA VB Ruiter area due to good surface drainage and no and the SA Air Force and the SAAF
Maj Samuels, SAAF, Secretary apparent underground holes. He further Association agreed to guarantee R40,000
confirmed that the weight of the Memo- and R37,000 respectively. The parties
The committee met for the first time on rial itself would not be a problem. He did further agreed to have joint responsibil-
November 14th 1960 to formulate a pro- recommend that special care be taken ity over the control and maintenance of
gram. The also appointed the following with the foundation of the Memorial. the Memorial, an arrangement that still
professional team: stands today.
Various other studies were done, amongst
Architects: Taylor & Taylor Quantity Sur- other by the Mining Department, the Generous donations were received
veyors: T Moore & Bell Consulting Struc- University of the Witwatersrand and the from British Aerospace Limited and the
tural Engineers: Ove Arup & Partners CSIR. Society of British Aircraft Construc-
tions Limited. The Parks Department of
The architects were asked to make certain Ove Arup & Partners investigated various the Pretoria Municipality, through Mr
initial amendments to the design, includ- techniques to deal with the foundation Brunslich, donated 36 olive trees to form
ing enlarging the area of the Memorial problem. One was to put down a huge an avenue next to the road leading to the
Hall. concrete column on which the Memorial Memorial.
could be placed. This plan would call for
The known dolomitic nature of the area a column of about 24 meters deep. The Construction of the Memorial started in
was the first challenge of the team. Test eventual design was to use a concrete May 1962 and Transvaal Construction, of
holes were drilled early in 1961 and Mr B raft composed of six major beams each which Mr Henk Muuren was the princi-
Isaacs of Ove Arup & Partners confirmed 1,2 x 2,4 x 46 meter long. These were pal director, achieved a good standard of
work, in spite of the complexities of the
reinforced concrete structure. Great care
was taken to use as much local material
such as Granite from Namaqualand and
Stinkwood from Knysna. The original
gates from the Waterkloof Memorial were
re-used at the main entrance of the new
SAAF Memorial.

The Memorial, together with terraces for
seating, roads, grassing etc, was com-
pleted in 1963 and careful and detailed
planning for the opening, particularly by
the SAAF, proceeded for the opening cer-
emony on September 1st 1963. The SAAF
and SAAF Association worked
wholeheartedly towards this goal.

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