Simonstown docks 1971. A VIP coming aboard the SAS President Kruger. The ‘PK’ as she was affectionately known was tragically sunk whilst on a training exercise when her heavier supply vessel, the SAS Tafelberg, accidentally collided with her. 16 Brave South African servicemen on board the PK where lost. We celebrate a beautiful frigate in her heyday.
For more information on the PK do visit http://www.saspresidentkruger.com/
The Two Minutes of Silence was started by Sir James Percy FITZPATRICK. He was born in King William’s Town in 1862 and died in Uitenhage in 1931, eldest son of James Coleman FITZPATRICK, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony, and his wife Jenny, both from Ireland. The couple had 4 children: Nugent, Alan, Oliver, and Cecily.
Our own Tannie Mossie (Joan ABRAHAMS of Bloemfontein) wrote a well-researched book in the 1990s about this – “Time from Africa – A two minute silent pause to remember – 11:00 on the 11th of the 11th month.”
It shows the tradition started off in Cape Town with the noon gun on Signal Hill. It was the idea of Sir Percy FITZPATRICK, author of Jock of the Bushveld. Joan’s book also shows the correct silence – one minute for one person, and two minutes for more than one person – one minute for the dead and one minute for the survivors.
In 1916, Sir Percy attended a church service in Cape Town and a moment of silence was held for dead soldiers. When he heard that 11 November 1918 was going to be observed as Armistice Day in London, he asked for a two minute silence throughout the British Empire as a tribute to dead soldiers.
Sir Percy’s son, Percy Nugent George, was a Major in the Union Defence Force. He was killed in France in 1917.
Major P.N.G. Fitzpatrick
South African Heavy Artillery, 71st Siege Battery
Died 14 Dec 1917, age 28
Born in Johannesburg.
Volunteered on 04 Aug 1914 and served in the Rand Rebellion and German South
West Africa with the Imperial Light Horse.
Buried at Red Cross Corner Cemetery, Beugny
Sir Harry HANDS, then mayor of Cape Town, and Councillor R.R. BRYDEN, already observed a moment of silence after the firing of the noon gun was started. Sir Percy’s suggestion was taken up and a two minute silence was held in Cape Town on 14 December 1918, a year after Nugent’s death. Cape Town became the first city in the world to observe the two minute silence.
WWI ended on 11 November 1918 with the guns stopped on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. This is why 11 November was chosen in 1919 as the day to remember war dead.
At first, it was known as Armistice Day (armistice meaning an agreement between enemies to stop fighting). Now it is mostly known as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day.
The poppy story goes back to 1915 when a Canadian soldier, serving as a doctor, John McCRAE, was working in France. He wrote a poem that year about the poppies growing on the graves of dead soldiers:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCRAE died of meningitis later in 1918.
An American poet, Moina MICHAEL, read the poem and bought poppies to give to friends. She also sold poppies and gave the money to needy ex-soldiers. Eventually the Americans had women in war-ravaged France sewing artificial poppies and the money raised went to war survivors.
In Britain, former soldiers faced another battle – getting on with life. Ex-servicemen’s societies united in 1921 to form the British Legion, to provide support to ex-servicemen, especially the disabled, and their families.
A French woman involved in the artificial poppy sewing project in France suggested that the British Legion sell the poppies to raise money. The British Legion signed on and 1.5 million poppies were ordered for 11 November 1921. The first Poppy Appeal made £106,000. The British Legion set up its own poppy sewing project, using disabled ex-servicemen. By the end of the 20th century, the British Legion was selling over 32 million poppies per annum.
Poppies were chosen not only because of the poem, but also because they were the only flowers that grew abundantly on the battlefields. They also only bloom for a short time, just like the young men and women killed in wars.
In South Africa, the South African Legion holds street collections to raise funds to assist in the welfare work among military veterans. When you buy a poppy for Remembrance Day, you pay tribute to those who died, and you are helping those who survived and bear the scars of war.
in remembrance of all those who have fallen in the many wars over the centuries, either in defence of their country or to make the world a better place for those who live on.
Another WW1 image of the drum head service after Delville Wood as a reminder of what South Africans have sacrificed ahead of Remembrance Day. This was the South African Brigade’s Memorial Service, Delville Wood, 17 February 1918 in honour of the near battalions worth of South Africans lost in the wood in late 1916. Note the wooden cross in the background, as well as the small grouping of nurses. Also note, that one and a half years after the battle the environment has not yet recovered the devastation at the site.
Imperial War Museum Collection Copyright.
This image of ‘rest and recuperation’ after Operation Modular in 1987 says it all. This is an image of Dave Mannall (centre in the foetal position) and his crew after Operations. These men had just days before been in intense combat in a Ratel Infantry Fighting Vehicle, and had witnessed and impacted severe destruction and death as part of 61 Mech. They had just witnessed the death and maiming of colleagues who where bombed in their Ratel from an overflying Mig – literally right next to them.
This image is powerful in that it is one of the rare images of the SADF that actually shows the high degree of emotional detachment caused by the stressors of combat. For many this is the onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which while young is easily carried over by servicemen, but it’s when life throws a few more curve balls that PTSD becomes more pronounced in veterans in their later years. There is fierce debate in veterans circles as to how to deal with this now and very high criticism levelled at the old SADF structures as to how this would be managed and planned in future years.
On Remembrance Day 11/11, we as veterans of war remember, we remember the fallen and we remember the injured and especially we remember the mental scarring of war.
Picture Copyright Dave Mannall
The story of Bing, the parachuting World War II dog who leapt from a plane on D-Day and led troops to victory, will be told for the first time in a children’s book by British inventor and professional daredevil Gil Boyd.
He led troops on to the D-Day battlefields and saved hundreds of lives at the pivotal Rhine Crossing in 1945.
Written from Bing’s point-of-view, the book recounts how he dropped to earth with invading soldiers before going ahead to warn of hidden perils.
Mr Boyd, 59, a former Parachute Regiment soldier, said: ‘Bing and sniper Jack Walton would courageously go in first and make sure the area was safe.
‘Bing had an incredible ability to sense danger – he led some 700 men but if something ahead was wrong he would stop and remain utterly still to alert them.’ The book follows Bing from the outbreak of war, when he was given to the Army as rationing meant his owner could no longer afford to keep him.
When his ability to sniff out trouble was recognised, he was trained to jump out of planes and went on to witness some of history’s most crucial moments.
During the D-Day landings, Bing would keep watch while his men slept. After the war, he returned to his owner in Essex – and his peacetime name of Brian – before dying of natural causes in 1955, aged 13. In 1947, he was awarded the PDSA Dicken Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.
‘I felt this was a story that needed to be told,’ said Mr Boyd. Proceeds from sales of Amazing Adventures Of Bing The Parachuting Dog, will go to charities.
To order a copy, email airborne.enquiries@gmail.com
From: http://metro.co.uk/2012/04/01/story-of-parachuting-wwii-dog-bing-to-be-told-in-new-childrens-book-373577/
Great photograph by Peter Marlow of a South African patrol travelling in an ‘Buffel’ anti-mine armoured troop carrier near the Angolan South West Africa/Namibia border.
From the looks of the men and weaponry this looks like a ‘Citizen Force’ unit in the late 70′s/early 80′s. The Citizen Force where made up of national servicemen who had completed two years compulsory national service and where obliged to attend ‘camps’ which ranged from one month to three months on average for an additional 10 years post the initial national service period.
Most of these men just weeks before where probably at home with their families and in their normal jobs on ‘civvie street’, suddenly transported into a war zone as part of a ‘camp’ commitment (hence their nickname in the army of ‘campers’).
Photo copyright Peter Marlow
