99. The Other Side of the Coin
Amazingly, I was presented with another story about the South African forces in Tobruk, some years after I had met and heard Benny Hermer’s story. It’s so frustrating when you hear these tales of courage against the odds – and there is still no interest in funding a movie on the subject.
My old friend, Ken Gampu, probably the first Black actor in South Africa to star in an international movie with Cornel Wilde, contacted me one day with a story that he felt would be a winner. He was in his seventies at that stage and would not be able to play the lead. He was keen to co-produce and take a supporting role in the picture. Unfortunately, Ken died a few months after discussing the story with me. This was the story:
A young African man by the name of Job Maseko came to Johannesburg from the country to work on the gold mines in 1937. Life in the rural areas was tough in those days. There was little work except for jobs as a laborer on one of the white man’s farms. The pay was terrible, the work hard and virtually no prospects for enhancement.
Job, like many young men in the region, decided to head for Egoli (the city of gold) where working on the mines, although dangerous and exhausting, did at least pay a living wage. Job approached the recruitment officer for one of the mines, who frequently travelled to the rural areas to recruit young men for the fast-growing mining industry that was already supplying the majority of the world’s gold. Acquiring the valuable yellow metal was already a marvel of engineering ingenuity. The mine shafts eventually reached as far as three or four miles underground, requiring the staggering logistics of creating mine shafts with lifts capable of reaching miles underground. Ventilation, along with combating the growing heat the deeper one went, was a massive problem. Job worked on the blasting gang that laid dynamite charges on the pit face and blasted the ore away from the gold seams. It was tough, sweaty and generally unhealthy work but Job was determined to succeed. Back home he had fallen in love with a young girl and wanted to marry her. The girl’s father demanded a large lebola (dowry) for his daughter, which was usually paid for in cattle. Job hoped that his pay from the mines would enable him to save up and buy the required number of cattle, but it would still take him a few years to achieve this.
When World War II broke out, the South African armed forces started to recruit Black men for such tasks as stretcher bearers, cooks and other non-combative roles. The government was fearful of allowing Blacks to carry arms even though it was still nine years before the establishment of Apartheid. What many people forget is that many of the repressive actions of whites on Blacks existed well before the idiotic notion of giving a name – Apartheid – to legalized discrimination. Job was told that he would earn more money in the South African army than on the mines. Fearing that the girl he wanted to marry would not wait for him, he signed up as a soldier. After a few weeks of training he was sent off to the Northern desert as a stretcher bearer in the medical corps. It is not known how he felt about the war itself. His primary motive was to earn enough money to pay for the girl’s lebola. However, he was a diligent young man and whatever task he was given he carried out to the best of his ability.
Job, along with Benny Hermer, was captured by the Germans at the time of the fall of Tobruk. I spoke to Benny about Job and asked if he had ever met him. Benny said that he hadn’t, but with over 30,000 prisoners it was not surprising. I then put it to Benny that it might make sense to combine the two stories, making its commercial potential even greater. Benny was enthusiastic about the idea, but his children quickly put a stop to it, saying that my idea put too much emphasis on the Tobruk story and not enough on Benny’s then fiancée’s equally incredible tale of her journey from Germany to Egypt. I offered to research her story in more detail, but the children refused to let me take it further, saying they were writing a book and I would not get permission to proceed with anything. I completely understood the need to embellish their mother’s role but was frustrated by being cut out of the whole thing. Sadly, Benny was not at all well at this point and I decided to drop it.
Anyway, Job ended up in the same prison camp as Benny, even though they didn’t meet. Job along with all the other Black prisoners of war were used by the Germans as laborers and harshly treated. Job was sent to Tobruk harbor where he had to unload supplies and ammunition, etc., from the German ships. As the weeks went by, he became more and more frantic about his chances of earning lebola for his girl. He also acquired a fierce hatred of the German troops who treated the Black laborers far worse than their equivalent white prisoners.
One day, Job was moodily walking around the prison camp. He kicked the sand in frustration and then saw something shiny under his foot. He bent down and retrieved an unused bullet. He nearly threw it away but was suddenly struck by an idea. He started searching the sand for more bullets and soon found a few more of them. For the next few days, he scratched around most of the open areas in the camp and steadily acquired more and more bullets. Back in his hut, he found a rusty old knife and managed to prize the lead bullet from its cartridge and collect the gunpowder within the cartridge.
In another week or so he had collected enough gunpowder to make a small bomb. He then put the powder into an empty condensed milk can and packed it tight with bits of paper and cardboard. He also managed to fashion a crude fuse. His time on the mines, working with dynamite and laying fuses, had given him enough knowledge to make an effective bomb.
A few days later, he took the bomb with him aboard one of the German cargo ships where he was working. The ship was moored in the middle of the harbor waiting its turn to tie up on the jetty. Until that happened, all the goods were loaded onto small craft that unloaded at the end of the jetty. He had previously established that in the hold there were about thirty barrels of gasoline, as well as cases of arms and ammunition on the far side of the hold. Job managed to loosen the cap, spilling the fuel onto the floor. It was almost the end of his shift. He lit the fuse of the bomb next to the barrel and hurried up on deck, He and the other Black prisoners had been ferried back to the jetty when there was an enormous explosion. The ship Job had been working on rose up in the water, as the barrels of fuel exploded, then turned on its side and sank within minutes.
Some weeks later, the British forces recaptured Tobruk and the prisoners were released. Job and some other Black soldiers reported for duty to one of the South African officers. The officer asked how Job had been treated while he was a prisoner. The young man replied that the Germans had been very harsh with the Black prisoners in particular. He then added almost as an afterthought that he had at least had the satisfaction of sinking one of their ships. The officer shook his head in disbelief, but the other men crowded around and confirmed that Job had sunk the ship.
Somehow, the news filtered through to senior officers who were disinclined to believe it. However, a British officer told them that they would be sending divers down to check on any wrecks in the harbor and they could also try to find out how the ship or ships had sunk. A few days later the divers confirmed that a ship was lying on harbor floor; and it was clear it had been sunk by an internal explosion. Suddenly, Job’s story was taken seriously. British officers wanted to recommend him for a medal, possibly even a Victoria Cross. The South African officers were horrified. How could a Black man and non-combatant receive such a medal? After a lot of haggling, he was finally given a portrait of himself and the George Medal, the lowest award he could be given.
Job was not particularly upset, but his friends were furious. In the event, he received word that his girl had not waited for him and was married. Job sadly continued to serve until the end of the war and, on being repatriated back to South Africa along with the other Blacks, he was given £10 and a bicycle as a reward for his services. In 1952, Job was killed after being struck by a train. How that happened is not recorded. Had Ken Gampu not died, it is possible that we may have gotten the story financed – except that, up until a few years ago, pictures featuring Black heroes and mostly a Black cast were simply not regarded as being suitable for mainstream international cinema. Hence, my interest in linking the story to Benny’s tale. This has all changed in recent years; so, who knows, one day….
Fortunately, with projects like ExoTech, the momentum gathers speed by the day and the working model of ExoBrain III that far surpasses ExoBrains I and II will be available in 2022. This will expedite the process and ExoTech will soon become an unstoppable force that will release this incredible new technology to create the much-needed paradigm shift in computing!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.