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About Job Masego
Lance Corporal Job Masego
a South African soldier, was a Prisoner of War in North Africa during WWII. He made a bomb out of a condensed milk tin and gunpowder and at great risk to himself, destroyed a German freighter. He was never caught as the Germans did not consider such innovation within the capabilities of Black troops. He was awarded a medal and his bravery has been recognized by the South African Navy naming 2 units, a Strike Craft and the Simon's Town Naval Base Wardroom, after him.
Philip De Kock
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203612446265571&set=gm.14...
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Job Masego, a World War 2 veteran
who sank a German supply boat 10 years earlier, was struck by a train in Springs and died on 7 March 1952.
Masego had been employed as a delivery man at the explosives factory at Modderfontein, Springs, before he volunteered for service with the Native Military Corps of the Union Defence Force.
He became a prisoner of war on 21 June 1942 when Major-General Henry Balthazar Klopper, surrendered to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Tobruk with 32 000 men, including 10 722 South Africans of the 2nd Division. Of these 1 200 were Native Military Corps members.
Masego constructed a bomb, using a milk tin, cordite and a fuse and, with the help of fellow prisoners Andrew Mohudi, Sam Police, and Koos Williams, managed to hide the device on a German cargo boat at the docks of Tobruk, a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. The boat was destroyed in the explosion later that afternoon. Masego received five medals for his service in the army, among them the Military Medal (MM), handed over by Major-General FH Theron.
An extract from his Military Medal citation read:
No N 4448 Lance Corporal Job Masego – Native Military Corps
For meritorious and courageous action in that on or about the 21st July, while a Prisoner of War, he, Job Masego, sank a fully laden enemy steamer– probably an "F" boat – while moored in Tobruk Harbour.
This he did by placing a small tin filled with gunpowder in among drums of petrol in the hold, leading a fuse therefrom to the hatch and lighting the fuse upon closing the hatch.
In carrying out this deliberately planned action, Job Masego displayed ingenuity, determination and complete disregard of personal safety from punishment by the enemy or from the ensuing explosion which set the vessel alight.
Masego was buried with borrowed money in the Payneville Township Cemetery of Springs.
In his honour, the township of KwaThema near Springs has a primary school named after him. The main road linking Springs to KwaThema was named after him and in 1997 the South African Navy fast attack craft SAS Kobie Coetzee was renamed SAS Job Masego.
In 2007, South African director Vincent Moloi made a documentary about Job Masego and the South African 2nd Infantry Division called "A Pair of Boots and a Bicycle".
http://www.yworld.co.za/day_in_history/?search-year=13&search-month...
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Corporal Masego replied; “Oh! I sank a steamer”
JULY 21, 2013 BY GO SOUTH ONLINE Day-by-Day in the SA Navy – Chris Bennett. 21 July:
1942 - Lance Corporal Job Masego MM, captured with the Second Division at Tobruk, is held as a POW in that port. He and his fellow prisoners are put to work unloading cargo ships in the harbour. The following incident is taken from an article written by journalist Z B Molefe that appeared in the Sowetan newspaper of 6 March 1981 and describes how Masego managed to sink a ship in the harbour.
“It was estimated that some 1,200 black soldiers who had been serving in the ill-fated 2nd South African Division had also fallen into the hands of the Germans when Tobruk fell. After the battle of El Alamein and with the German Army in full retreat Col H O Sayer, Deputy Director Non-European Army Services followed up the advancing Allies to take care of released POWs.
Before the Allies reached Tobruk Col. Sayer found three men, two black soldiers and one coloured man from the Cape Corps who had escaped from the Tobruk POW camp. Corporal Masego was their spokesman and told of the condition of the prisoners still being held, their health and their immediate needs. He also described their life in captivity explaining that they were used mainly to off-load army supplies at the Tobruk harbour.
This work had enabled them to do considerable damage to supplies and equipment when they were not too closely watched by their Italian guards. For example whilst the sugar supplies, captured by the Germans when the 2nd South African Division surrendered, held out, the POWs were given a daily ration. One bright man amongst them told his fellow prisoners that if they put sugar in the tanks of the motor vehicles when they filled them with petrol, this would gum up the valves of the motors and cause a great deal of damage. The POWs actually sacrificed their sugar rations and apparently managed to cripple a number of vehicles in this way.
When asked “What did you do yourself?” Corporal Masego replied; “Oh! I sank a steamer”. This was confirmed by the Cape Corps soldier and Masego explained that before the war he had worked in the gold mines of the Witwatersrand and knew something about fuses and explosives. He had manufactured a long fuse from string and cordite and attached this to a jam tin that he had filled with more cordite that he had obtained from cartridges which could always be picked up in the trenches and sand. He then carried this little demolition outfit around in his haversack for ten days waiting for an opportunity to find something worthwhile that he could blow up.
On 21 July Corporal Masego and his group were busy unloading the cargo consisting of ammunition and petrol from a small steamer in the harbour. Some of his trusted mates were instructed to dance excitedly round the guard, talking in their own language, which the Germans did not understand, in order to distract his attention whilst Masego was fastening the covers on the hatch. This gave him the opportunity to light the fuse which he had earlier led around the ribs of the ship and down to the explosive jam tin that he had placed amongst some jerrycans of petrol.
The work team was naturally anxious as they were marched away and luckily it was only after they had gone over a rise in the ground and were out of sight of the harbour that a series of explosions were heard. The POWs pretended no interest in these explosions as this might have given them away for, as Corporal Masego explained, they were now for the first time, afraid. The following day the working party was mustered for questioning; “Had any of them been smoking in the hold of the ship?” But only blank faces stared back at their questioners.
Thankfully for the POWs the suspicions of their captors had evidently not been fully aroused and there were no obvious links between them and what had happened on the ship. Nevertheless, Corporal Masegos group was removed from the harbour work force and Corporal Masego found himself detailed for manual labour on a wireless dump about a mile from Tobruk.
While at work in the wireless dump, Corporal Masego watched the assembly of receiving sets until he thought he could assemble a set himself. During a meal interval, he managed to take his assembled set into a disused brick hut that had a large hole in the roof and another in the cement floor. The space under the floor was some sort of storage cellar formerly used by the Italians for their wine. Corporal Masego had heard that there was an unexploded aerial bomb in the cellar and he therefore considered that it was unlikely to be searched. “They were afraid to go there” he said. He managed to secure a ladder and took his wireless set down through the hole.
Meanwhile all the prisoners had been told by their captors that it would be impossible to escape as they would surely die in the desert especially as Cairo and Alexandria were now in German hands and therefore even if they achieved the impossible and escaped, they would be recaptured and shot. As British aircraft were still to be seen overhead the POWs doubted this information and this had led to Masegos desire to fix up a wireless in order to get Allied news broadcasts. Eventually he got the set going and picked up broadcasts from Cairo which told him that Rommel had been pushed back after the battle of El Alamein. It was then that Corporal Masego and his comrades decided to escape using water they collected from the radiators of broken down vehicles to survive in the desert. Col Sayer thought his story was true but affected not to believe it and instructed Masego to accompany him back to Tobruk. They were amongst the first Allied troops to re-enter the town and Masego led them to a little white building about a mile outside of Tobruk to the west. Dangling from the roof was a rusty wire, which Masego said was his aerial. He then knelt on the floor and reached through an opening in the floor for a hidden ladder, down which he climbed and found his radio. The set was found to be still working and Col Sayer obtained permission for it to be taken back to South Africa as a trophy. This also gave additional credence to his story of the sinking of the ship in the harbour and subsequently a diver sent from Alexandria found the sunken vessel and substantiated Masego’s story. Today, a portrait of Corporal Masego hangs in the South African Museum of Military Historys Geo. Brink Hall proclaiming his bravery. His citation reads:
“Corporal Masego who was captured with the Second Division in Tobruk was awarded the Military Medal for his ingenuity, determination and complete disregard of personal danger when he sank a fully-laden enemy steamer in Tobruk Harbour in which he and other prisoners had been put to work.” The portrait was painted by the official war artist, Neville Lewis.”
Job Masego returned to South Africa in 1943 and subsequently the Job Masego Primary School in Kwa Thema, Gauteng, was named after him. In 1997 the strike craft SAS Kobie Coetsee was renamed SAS Job Masego in his honour and in 2005, after this ship was disposed of, the Navy kept the name going by naming the Naval Base Simon’s Town Wardroom in his honour.
1970 South Africa’s third Daphne Class submarine SAS Johanna van der Merwe (Lt Cdr T Honiball) – later renamed SAS Assegaai – is launched in Nantes, France.
According to Neville Lewis, the first official South Africa war artist during World War II, Maseko was recommended for a Victoria Cross but, being considered “only an African”, he was awarded the Military Medal instead. He attained the rank of lance corporal during his service.
Maseko died in 1952 after being struck by a train and was buried with borrowed money in the Payneville Township Cemetery of Springs.
http://gosouthonline.co.za/corporal-masego-replied-oh-i-sank-a-stea...
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