Identity
Person No.
27487
Service No.
329043V
Last Name
First Name
Coen Brits
Initials
C B
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
29
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,811
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, Liberator B.VI KG999, 8 crew (1 RAF and 5 RAFVR), took off from Celone, Italy, for Partisan supply drop in Northern Italy, north of Turin at night in poor weather. The weather conditions were very poor with 10/10 cloud cover and the aircraft crashed into the mountains above Ala di Stura. At the time of the crash there was no reported flak or air opposition
Military Service
Location
Country
Locality
Unknown
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Memorial
Memorial
Location
SAAF Memorial, AFB Swartkop, Pretoria, South Africa
Panel
Not listed against a numbered panel
On the panel
KG999
Notes
Son of Hendrik J. and Margaretha J. M. Vorster, of Pretoria, Transaval, South Africa.
Research notes
5 Sep 2026: Unit "31 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
16 Oct 2026: Confirmed by the Alpine 44 Commemoration crew-roll photo -- all core fields match. Minor Age/Rank variants in the photo not applied, SAWGP independently sides with this record's existing values (see each note below).
Citations
Unknown
External References
-
Alpine 44 Club / Ad Astra Magazine (SAAF)
Alpine 44 Commemoration crew-roll photo and article, Ad Astra Magazine (Cpl Khensane Cheriz Nkuna), posted to Facebook; service held Air Force Memorial Swartkop, 11 Oct 2026
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
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