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EDITORS NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In June 2002 the Honorary Colonel of 17 Squadron, Brian Holmner, approached me with the request to compile the squadron history. This, I thought, was an impossible task but consented to attempting this pictorial history of 17 Squadron's helicopter operations. Each photograph tells a story and I trust that the reader will enjoy reliving the past.
The photographs in this publication have been collected from many sources and have been selected solely on their historical appeal and not on their photographic quality. The photographs have been largely taken by amateurs and often in times when it was against regulations to have a camera in your possession. It was surprising to see the degradation that had taken place over the years on colour photographs whilst black and white largely kept their sharpness.
Many photographs that were neither dated nor annotated have passed through my hands. It was thus left to a number of enthusiasts and myself to try and decipher their origin and content. Please accept that certain dates could be wrong but, given the time constraints that applied to the publication of this book, this was unavoidable.
The photographs have been drawn from a wide variety of sources and I have attempted, where possible, to give recognition to the origin of photographs. The intention of this publication is not to infringe any photographic copyright but merely to record history as best as possible through a photographic medium. Certain photographs have been scanned from newspaper cuttings and I acknowledge the important role that the media of South Africa has played in the recording of history and their support of the Squadron over the past 65 years. A special word of thanks to the SAAF Museum and Kim Helfrich and the Pretoria News for allowing me access to their archives. Thank you also to all those past and present members who made the effort to scratch through their albums for photographs and thereby make this publication a reality.
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