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Job Maseko
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Job Maseko MM (1922 – 7 March 1952) was a South African soldier during World War II, serving in the Native Military Corps[1] as part of the South African 2nd Infantry Division. He was one of many Allied troops captured by the Axis in the surrender of the port of Tobruk in 1942.
Key Information
He gained fame by his actions in sinking a German vessel with a milk can while serving as a POW stevedore in Tobruk harbour, for which he was awarded the Military Medal.
Before the war
[edit]Before the war, Maseko worked as a miner in Springs, Union of South Africa.[2] After completion of basic training, he was sent to North Africa to join the 2nd South African Division.[1]
Surrender and sabotage
[edit]Maseko became a prisoner of war on 21 June 1942 when Major-General Hendrik Klopper, commander of the South African 2nd Infantry Division surrendered the Tobruk Garrison with 32,000 men to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The garrison included 10,722 South Africans of the 2nd Division (of which 1,200 were Native Military Corps members).
The Germans separated their prisoners by race. The white troops were sent to POW camps in Europe, but the prisoners of colour were retained in Italian POW camps in Africa where they were forced to work as manual labourers under horrific conditions.[3] Part of the prisoners' forced labour involved loading and unloading supplies from German freight ships in the port of Tobruk. With his pre-war experience and exposure to explosives, while unloading cargo from a German freight ship in the Tobruk harbour on 21 July 1942,[4] Maseko got three of his fellow prisoners[Note 1] to distract the German guards while he got busy below deck making a bomb using his pre-war mining experience. Using ammunition from which he extracted the cordite and a long fuse, Maseko put together an improvised explosive device which he stashed among jerry-cans of gasoline in the ship's hold.[5] While he and his fellow prisoners were taking the final load off the ship, Maseko lit the fuse and then left the ship.[3] The ship was destroyed in the explosion and the subsequent fire.[3][6] The next day, the POWs were questioned about smoking while on board ship – to which they answered that cigarettes were forbidden and were not included in any rations, which could not be disputed by their Italian captors.[5]
Maseko later escaped from the Italian POW camp in Tobruk and walked for three weeks through the desert and enemy lines to El Alamein.[7][6] In October 1942 he joined in the defeat of his German and Italian captors as a stretcher bearer with the 1st South African Infantry Division in the Second Battle of El Alamein.[8] After El Alamein, he was transferred to the 6th South African Armoured Division and was gazetted as a recipient of the Military Medal (MM) for his actions in Tobruk on 11 March 1943.[9] The award was later bestowed on him by Major-General Francois Henry "Frank" Theron while in Italy with the armoured division.[10]
He attained the rank of lance corporal during his service.
Awards
[edit]Military Medal
[edit].jpg)
Maseko was decorated with the Military Medal. The citation reads as follows:[11]
The King has been graciously pleased to approve the following award in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the Middle East:
MILITARY MEDAL
No N 4448 L/Cpl Job Masego (sic) - Native Military Corps
CITATION
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.
War artist Neville Lewis, who painted Maseko's portrait, later claimed that Maseko had been nominated for the Victoria Cross for valour, but a senior military officer had vetoed the recommendation of giving such an honour to a black man, and he was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry instead.[1][12] This unsubstantiated claim was repeated in 2021, to support an unsuccessful petition to the British government asking for Maseko to be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. However, the records at the United Kingdom National Archives tell a different story. They reveal that Maseko had actually been recommended for the British Empire Medal for gallantry, and the citation was upgraded to an immediate award of the Military Medal.[13][14]
Service Medals
[edit]As with fellow service members, Maseko would have been awarded the following service medals in addition to the Military Medal:[15][16]
Life after the war
[edit]After the war, like many other demobilised soldiers, he gained little recognition in the world of civilian life. In addition, the Apartheid-based general rule governing pension awards was that Coloured pension scales should amount to three-fifths and African pension scales to two-fifths of the rate applicable to whites.[1] Most African ex-servicemen who had cherished high hopes of their post-war world were disillusioned when they could not find employment based on the new skills they had acquired in the army and that the standard of living to which they were accustomed while members of the South African forces were no longer applicable. For Maseko and members of the NMC, post-war South Africa was very much the same as the pre-1939 South Africa.[1]
Maseko was struck and killed by a train on 7 March 1952; at the time of his death, he was so poor that his funeral was paid for by borrowed and donated funds.[11] He was buried in the Payneville Township Cemetery in Springs, South Africa.[12]
His death certificate gives his age as "+/- 30 years", which suggests that he was born around 1922. If so, he would have been about 20 years old at the time of the act for which he was decorated.[17]
Honours and recognition
[edit]In his honour, the township of KwaThema, near Springs, has a primary school named after him, as is the main road linking Springs to KwaThema. In 1997, the South African Navy renamed the missile attack craft SAS Kobie Coetzee as SAS Job Masego.[18] In 2019, Regiment Noord-Transvaal was renamed Job Masego Regiment. It is unclear why the defence force spells his surname as 'Masego' rather than 'Maseko'.
In 2007, South African director Vincent Moloi made a documentary about Job Maseko and the South African 2nd Infantry Division called "A Pair of Boots and a Bicycle".[19]
References
[edit]- Citations
- ^ a b c d e Mohlamme, JS (June 1995). "Soldiers without reward: Africans in South Africa's Wars". SA Military History Journal. 10 (1).
- ^ Suryakanthie Chetty, "Imagining National Unity: South African propaganda efforts during the Second World War". Kronos vol. 38, n.1, Cape Town, January 2012.
- ^ a b c Hemmings, Jay (10 April 2019). "The WWII POW Who Sank A German Ship With A Milk Tin! | War History Online". warhistoryonline. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
- ^ Horn (2015) citation 188
- ^ a b Horn (2015)
- ^ a b Maxwell (1992) p. 160
- ^ "Job Maseko". The Observation Post | South African Modern Military History.
- ^ https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/2/1/72/htm%7C[permanent dead link] Creating/Curating Cultural Capital: Monuments and Museums for Post-Apartheid South Africa. Elizabeth Rankin
- ^ "Page 1177 | Supplement 35934". The Gazette. 9 March 1943.
- ^ J.C. von Winterbach, Scott Sutherland, Mike Bersiks, Rex Barret and Barry Cooper, "6th South African Armoured Division".
- ^ a b "The incredible true tale of Job Maseko – The man who sunk a ship whilst a prisoner". Retrieved 10 December 2023.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b "Do you know who Job Maseko was?". Retrieved 10 December 2023.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Recommendation for Award for Masego, Job Rank: Lance Corporal Service No". The National Archives.
- ^ Plaut, Martin (23 July 2022). "How an artist's myth led the Daily Mail and BBC to get the story of Corporal Job Maseko wrong".
- ^ "Page 327 | Supplement 62529". The Gazette. 11 January 2019.
- ^ "Page 3404 | Supplement 38663". The Gazette. 12 July 1949.
- ^ Surname= Maseko Family Search [user-generated source]
- ^ List of decommissioned ships of the South African Navy.
- ^ "A pair of boots and a bicycle : the story of Job Maseko". WorldCat.
- Footnotes
- ^ Andrew Mohudi, Sam Police and Koos Williams
- Bibliography
- Horn, Karen (2015). In Enemy Hands: South Africa's POWs in World War II. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. ISBN 978-1-868426-52-2.
- Leigh, Maxwell (1992). Captives Courageous: South African Prisoners of War in World War II. South Africans at War. Johannesburg: Ashanti. ISBN 1-874800-44-8.
- Media
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Job Maseko
View on GrokipediaEarly Life
Pre-war background and occupation
Job Maseko was born around 1922 in Springs, a gold-mining town east of Johannesburg in the Transvaal Province of South Africa (now Gauteng), during a period of entrenched racial segregation and limited opportunities for black South Africans.[1] He grew up amid widespread poverty in black communities, where employment options were largely confined to manual labor in industry or agriculture.[4] Prior to World War II, Maseko worked as a miner at a local gold mine, with accounts specifying the Daggafontein Wes or Vlakfontein operations in the East Rand mining district.[2][5] This role exposed him to the handling of explosives for blasting rock, providing technical skills in improvised ordnance that non-mining laborers typically lacked.[1][2] Some records describe his immediate pre-enlistment job as a delivery man in Springs, possibly reflecting a shift from mining amid economic fluctuations in the late 1930s.[6]Enlistment in the Native Military Corps
Job Maseko, born in 1922 near Johannesburg, was employed as a delivery man in Springs, Transvaal Province, when he volunteered for military service in the Union Defence Force following South Africa's entry into World War II in September 1939.[7] He joined the Native Military Corps (NMC), an auxiliary unit composed exclusively of black South African volunteers, which numbered around 80,000 men by war's end and handled non-combatant tasks such as labor, transport, cooking, and medical evacuation due to official policies prohibiting non-whites from combat roles or weapon possession.[8][7] Assigned initially to domestic support duties, Maseko underwent basic training and advanced to the rank of lance-corporal, reflecting his reliability in roles like stretcher-bearing for wounded soldiers.[9] His enlistment aligned with a broader recruitment drive in 1940–1941 that expanded the NMC to bolster Allied logistics in Africa, though volunteers faced pay disparities—earning about one-third of white soldiers' wages—and segregation in camps and facilities.[7] By early 1941, Maseko was attached to the 2nd South African Infantry Division for overseas deployment, marking his transition from civilian labor to wartime auxiliary service.[10]Military Service in World War II
Deployment and role in North Africa
Job Maseko, having enlisted in the South African Native Military Corps (NMC) in 1940, completed basic training before being deployed to North Africa in support of the Union Defence Force's operations in the Western Desert Campaign.[6] Attached to the 2nd South African Infantry Division, which arrived in the theater in late 1941, Maseko's unit provided essential non-combat support amid the Allied efforts to counter Axis advances led by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.[2] The NMC personnel, restricted by South African policy to rear-echelon roles such as logistics and medical aid, numbered over 100,000 across various campaigns, with detachments integrated into infantry divisions for operational efficiency.[7] In his assigned capacity as a stretcher bearer, Maseko was tasked with retrieving and transporting wounded combatants from forward positions, exposing him to intense combat conditions despite the NMC's official non-combatant status.[1] This role involved navigating minefields, artillery barrages, and machine-gun fire during engagements such as the Gazala Line battles in May-June 1942, where South African forces suffered heavy casualties.[6] His duties contributed to sustaining divisional morale and continuity by ensuring rapid evacuation, a critical function in the fluid desert warfare that characterized the North African front from 1941 to 1943.[1] Such service underscored the practical necessities overriding formal racial restrictions on African troops, as NMC members routinely operated near the front lines to fulfill support imperatives.[7]Surrender and capture at Tobruk
Job Maseko, serving as a stretcher bearer in the Native Military Corps attached to the South African 2nd Infantry Division, was deployed to North Africa in support of Allied operations against Axis forces.[1][10] His unit participated in defensive efforts during the Western Desert Campaign, including the garrison at Tobruk, Libya, which faced a major Axis offensive in mid-June 1942.[6][11] The Axis assault on Tobruk began on 17 June 1942, led by German Panzer Army Africa under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, overwhelming the Allied defenses through coordinated armored and infantry attacks that breached the perimeter fortifications.[12] By 21 June 1942, with ammunition and supplies critically low and encirclement complete, Major-General Hendrik Klopper, commander of the South African 2nd Division, ordered the surrender of the Tobruk garrison to avoid further futile resistance.[6][2] This capitulation resulted in the capture of approximately 32,000 Allied troops, including over 10,000 South Africans from the 2nd Division and attached Native Military Corps personnel.[6][13] Maseko was among those taken prisoner on 21 June 1942, marking the end of his active combat support role and the beginning of his internment under Axis control.[1][2] The sudden surrender shocked many captives, including NMC members who had been unarmed non-combatants tasked with logistics and medical aid, yet were treated as prisoners alongside combat troops.[12] Following capture, Maseko and other POWs were initially held in Tobruk before transfer to labor sites, enduring initial disorientation and harsh conditions amid the strategic setback for Allied forces in the region.[1][6]Imprisonment and Acts of Sabotage
POW conditions and labor assignments
Following the fall of Tobruk on 21 June 1942, approximately 10,722 South African personnel, including members of the Native Military Corps (NMC), were captured by German forces and promptly handed over to Italian custody, with the Germans expressing regret for the transfer.[12] Initial confinement occurred in wire enclosures or rudimentary barracks near the harbor, plagued by lice infestations, inadequate sanitation, and minimal water supplies, exacerbating the shock and humiliation of captivity.[12] Rations were severely limited, typically comprising a daily packet of hard biscuits, 300 grams of bully beef, and infrequent rice stew, resulting in widespread malnutrition and weight losses of 20 to 30 kilograms among prisoners.[12] Italian and local Senussi guards displayed frequent hostility, including arbitrary shootings—such as the killing of one prisoner for an insult—and enforced long marches to camps like Derna and Benghazi under exhausting conditions.[12] Non-white prisoners from the NMC faced discriminatory treatment beyond that of white South African troops, as Italians often denied them full prisoner-of-war status under the Geneva Convention, classifying them instead as colonial subjects liable for indefinite forced labor rather than protected combatants.[14] This racial policy, aligned with Axis ideologies, subjected NMC members to compelled war-related work under direct threats of death, including the unloading of military equipment and ammunition at Tobruk harbor.[12] Lance Corporal Job Maseko, serving in the NMC, was assigned to dock labor in Tobruk port, where prisoners loaded and unloaded supplies onto German freight ships, handling crates of ammunition and other materiel amid heightened surveillance and physical demands.[9][15] Such assignments exposed workers to risks from overloaded vessels and guard brutality, with non-compliance met by beatings or execution.[12]Improvised explosives and ship sinkings
As a prisoner of war compelled to perform stevedore duties in Tobruk Harbour following the fall of the port on 21 June 1942, Job Maseko exploited opportunities to sabotage Axis shipping by crafting improvised explosive devices from scavenged materials. These consisted of empty jam tins or condensed milk tins packed with cordite extracted from discarded enemy cartridges, paired with a lengthy fuse fashioned from twisted string supplemented by a cordite trail, enabling a delay of approximately 36 feet for safe egress.[2][16][6] On or around 21 July 1942, Maseko executed his most impactful operation against a fully laden German freighter—possibly an "F" boat—docked in the harbor and carrying drums of petrol along with jerry cans of fuel. Accompanied by three fellow POWs who distracted the guards, he boarded the vessel undetected, descended into the hold, positioned the charged tin amid the volatile cargo, ignited the fuse, and withdrew before the detonation.[16][17][2] The resulting blast ignited the fuel stores, engulfing the ship in flames and causing it to sink rapidly within minutes, as corroborated by post-war British investigations after the harbor's recapture on 14 November 1942, including diver examinations confirming the wreck on the seabed. German authorities attributed the incident to carelessness rather than deliberate sabotage, averting reprisals against the POWs. Maseko's Military Medal citation praised the act for its "ingenuity, determination, and complete disregard of personal safety from punishment by the enemy or from the ensuing explosion which set the vessel alight," underscoring the deliberate planning involved.[6][16][2]Wartime Awards
Military Medal details and citation
Lance Corporal Job Maseko, service number N/4448, serving in the Native Military Corps, received the Military Medal for gallantry displayed in an act of sabotage against an enemy transport ship while a prisoner of war in Tobruk harbor in July 1942.[1][9] The Military Medal, established by King George V in 1916, was conferred upon warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the British and Commonwealth forces for individual or collective acts of bravery in the face of the enemy on land.[3]
The award was presented to Maseko by Major-General F. H. Theron in 1943.[18] The official citation commended: "In carrying out this deliberately planned action, Job Maseko displayed great coolness, resourcefulness and courage of the highest order."[9][8] This recognition highlighted his initiative in constructing an improvised explosive device from a condensed milk tin filled with gunpowder obtained from enemy ammunition cartridges, a lit match-head fuse, and soap to waterproof it, which he attached to the ship's engine room below the waterline, resulting in the vessel's sinking.[1][3] The Military Medal ranked below the Distinguished Conduct Medal but above the Mention in Despatches in the British gallantry awards hierarchy for other ranks during World War II.[18]