de Havilland Vampire. Part Four. More African Users.

 

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company that was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and some other users around the globe, among them, the following ones:

• South Africa: Ten Vampire FB.5 were ordered by the South African Air Force (SAAF) in 1949. They were built at English Electric Company's factory at Preston, Lancashire and were shipped in two batches of five, the first in January 1950 and the second one in June. The ones of the first batch were sent unassembled and were re-assembled at Ysterplaat , Cape Town, on 8th February. Shortly later a training programme was launched to train SAAF pilots in jet flying. 
  Ten additional FB.52s were delivered in 1951 and, in order to provide additional training, six T.55 (the export variant of the T.11) were ordered and arrived in May 1952. These were of the early sub-variant with framed canopy and no ejection seats. Twenty-one additional standard T.55 were ordered, built at Chester, Cheshire, and delivered between February 1954 and June 1955.
  In order to re-equip No.2 Squadron on its return from Korea, 30 new Vampire FB.Mk.9 were ordered in 1953. Anyway, with the arrival of the Canadair Sabres in 1956, most Vampires were withdrawn from service and put into storage, to be finally scrapped in 1967. Apparently 36 of them were sold to the neighboring Rhodesia.
  Two T.55 were still operational serving as test beds for electronic equipment at the Test Flight and Development Centre in Waterkloof  until February 1985.
• Somalia: The Somalian Air Force operated one ex-Iraqi T.55 trainer in 1964. 
• Zimbabwe: The Air Force of Zimbabwe operated some Vampire FB.Mk.9 and T.55 inherited from the Rhodesian Air Force. They served with No.2 Squadron, based at Gweru Thornhill and, since they were obsolete, they were replaced during the 1980s by the BAE Systems Hawk. 

Sources:

1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_de_Havilland_Vampire_operators

2nd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Vampire

3rd Hall Park Books - Warpaint 27 - De Havilland Vampire

Aermacchi MB-326, South African Users

South African obtained a production license for the MB-326M that was named Atlas Impala Mk.I in 1964 and the production started two years later, in 1966. The South African Air Force bought 40 Italian airplanes and 125 of them were locally built by the Atlas Aircraft Corporation. They were used both in the trainer and light attack role.
Seven further airplanes of MB-326K light attack model plus another 15 of them and 78 more were locally built by the Atlas Aircraft Company as the Atlas Impala Mk.II in 1974.
They were used in the South African war against the Angolan and Cuban troops in the border war. During the course of that war only one of them was shot down by an Angolan SA-7.
They had many advantages as they could operate from primitive airfields in order to strike swiftly during the 1970s and most of the 1980s when most of the Impalas were replaced by the Dassault Mirage III and Blackburn Buccaneers in order to perform the ground attack role.
The Impala Mk.II was also used as interceptor when in 1985 one of them shot down various Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-24 helicopters cutting off Angolan supply lines.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aermacchi_MB-326#South_African_service
2. http://www.craiglotter.co.za/2015/05/13/military-aircraft-south-african-atlas-impala-macchi-mb-326/