Who developed the bomber that was shot down and killed Lieutenant Wally Marais?
Operation Rekstok Operation "Rekstok" (Operation Horizontal Bar) was a series of South African raids into southern Angola on 7 March 1979 during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War. The operation lasted six days. Operating from Ovamboland, SADF forces entered Angola and attacked SWAPO bases at Mongua, Oncocua, Henhombe and Heque. During the operation, a SAAF Canberra bomber was shot down, killing Lieutenant Wally Marais and Second Lieutenant OJ Doyle. The SADF conducted Rekstok concurrently with Operation Safraan and later performed Operation Sceptic.
Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle was a British single-engine light bomber designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the earlier Hawker Hart and Hind biplanes. The Battle was powered by the same high-performance Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that powered various contemporary British fighters. However the Battle was weighed down with a three-man crew and a bomb load. Despite being a great improvement on the aircraft that preceded it, by the time it saw action the Battle was relatively slow, limited in terms of range and was quickly found to be highly vulnerable to both anti-aircraft fire and hostile fighters, possessing only two defensive .303 in machine guns.