Zululand to Pondoland
IT SEEMS the war at sea off our coast in the 1940s was rather hotter than many imagine. Not only were there the incidents described last Monday, reader Paul van der Wall, of St Lucia (see today's illustration), also points out that the RAF Catalina squadron based on the lake was responsible for harrying an Italian cargo ship – the Timavo - into running aground.
A road in the village is named for that incident.
"Other streets in Umhlanga are also named after ships which were victims of German U-boats in 1942, such as the SS Dumra cargo ship, torpedoed carrying a shipment of lorries, and the troopship SS Mendoza, sunk with great loss of life. So the Catalinas were not only involved in the war effort off St. Lucia, they are part of Umhlanga's history as well."
Paul says many St Lucia people are not aware of the story of the Catalinas in World War II. When he takes tourists to a spot offering panoramic views over the wetlands and lake, he always asks if they know about the Catalinas. To his astonishment, a Dutch tourist once replied: "Yes, my brother flies one."
"I learned that an aircraft museum in Holland owns one of the last few flying examples of this magnificent war-bird, and my guest was pleased to know what damage they did to enemy submarines off Zululand."
Meanwhile – further south – Barry Payn, of Port Edward (formerly of Flagstaff), recalls his grandparents telling how they used to sit on their stoep in Pondoland and watch the aircraft that had taken off from just inland at Port Grosvenor (probably Andovers) dropping depth charges out at sea. Whether they actually hit any U-boats, they could never tell.
Yep, plenty went on that nobody was ever told about.
Morse message
WHICH recalls an incident at Grosvenor in the 1960s involving a group of desperadoes known to me.
They were camped on high ground looking out over the sea. It was dusk. A coaster was steaming north, close inshore taking the counter-current in the deep water off the Pondoland coast. Her navigation lights were on.
One of the party had been in the merchant navy.
"Say hello to her," somebody said.
This fellow picked up a fishing torch and started flashing a message in morse code. Every light on the vessel went out and she swung hard to starboard, straight out to sea.
"What did you say?"
"Heave to or we open fire!"
Yes, a lot happens that we're not told about.
BBC bias?
CRITICS of the BBC (which I've always admired enormously) often accuse it of having a snide left-wing, anti-establishment bias.
In the lead-up to Margaret Thatcher's funeral, the BBC man spoke of the military component of the ceremony reflecting "the struggle for the Malvinas".
The Malvinas? On the occasion of Thatcher's funeral? And from the public broadcaster?
One begins to get what those critics mean.
Camera work
THE BRITS certainly know how to lay on the pageantry. Margaret Thatcher's funeral was a classic of the genre – precision, colour, music, atmosphere.
And superb TV camera work, beamed out instantly all over the world. The shots inside St Paul's varied constantly, some of them taken seemingly from the very apex of the dome. Very impressive (this was the Sky broadcast).
Then when Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, spoke of an exchange Thatcher once had with Alex Salmond, Scottish Nationalist leader, the camera zoomed in immediately on a rather startled-looking Salmond.
The camera crew could not have known what Chartres was going to say. Great stuff!
Old friends
BISHOP Chartres and Margaret Thatcher appear to have known each other well. There was a moment in his eulogy when he described her expounding with passion on a key principle of her economic mentor, Friedrich von Hayek
Then suddenly she grabbed him firmly by the wrist: "Don't touch the pate, Bishop! It's very fattening!"
I think women call it multi-tasking.
Unerring GPS
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-40s: "I typed 'bitch' into my GPS and I ended up in her driveway."
Tailpiece
It was hard getting over my addiction to the Hokey Cokey. But I've turned myself around and that's what it's all about.
Last word
I've done the calculation and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not.
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