 Having been interested in aviation since he was a boy , Plagis volunteered for the Southern Rhodesian Air Force ( SRAF ) soon after the outbreak of war in September 1939 . He was turned down because he was the son of foreign nationals and therefore not a citizen , despite having lived in Rhodesia all his life . After Italy invaded Greece in late October 1940 , bringing the Greeks into the war on the Allied side , Plagis applied again — this time to join the Royal Air Force , which had absorbed the SRAF in April 1940 — and was accepted . Training first in Southern Rhodesia , then England , Plagis passed out with the rank of flight sergeant in June 1941 with above @-@ average ratings in all of his flying assessments . 
