MATERIAL still keeps coming in about the conflict off our coast in World War II, which hardly anyone seemed aware of, and the potentially deadly threat it posed to Durban.
Local novelist Graham Coggin sends in a fascinating research paper on which he has based his latest book, Dangerous Divisions (The Educational Publisher Inc), which is set in that era.
It seems the German pocket battleship Graf Spee was off our coast at the start of the war and had the firepower to virtually destroy Durban harbour on her own – but then she was deployed to the South Atlantic and later sunk by the Royal Navy.
Vichy France had made available to the Axis powers the Madagascan naval port of Diego Suarrez. German and Italian submarines were using it and Japan was being encouraged to invade and take over Madagascar, which would have made possible a Pearl Harbor-style attack on Durban.
Japanese seaplanes had already overflown Durban with impunity, Coggin says, launched from giant "I" class submarines that displaced 2 180 tons, had a range of between 16 000 and 24 000 km and carried midget submarines and collapsible seaplanes, which were used for reconnaisance.
So seriously was the Japanese threat via Madagascar taken that the Royal Navy despatched from Durban a strike force of 57 ships, including two aircraft carriers, a battleship, two cruisers, nine destroyers, six corvettes and six minesweepers, which stormed and took Diego Suarrez. A total of 1 350 Vichy French, 70 Italian and 55 German troops were captured and brought back to Durban as POWs.
Hair-raising stuff. Heroes of the Madagascar campaign were a couple who radioed a constant stream of information from the island to the Allies and actually physically cut the telephone connection to Diego Suarrez to prevent the base being alerted to the seaborne invasion. They retired to Kloof after the war and were each awarded the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre.
Presumably they feature in Dangerous Divisions. It should be a good read when it comes out.
Ancient history? Irrelevant? We wouldn't be where we are today – none of us – if things hadn't panned out the way they did.
Chauffeur-driven
OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties:
"My wife drives me to drink."
"You're lucky, I have to walk."
Little finger
HORRORS! An American tourist was trying to measure the dimensions of the little finger in the14th century statue of Vergine e all'Angelo Annunciatore (The Virgin and the Angel Announcer) in a Florence museum when it simply broke off.
But it could have been worse. The little finger in this work by Giovanni d'Ambrogio was not the original. It had been broken off once before by vandals and replaced.
All the same, it could still cost this tourist a tidy sum. They mean it when they tell you not to touch the exhibits.
Tailpiece
THE SCHOOLS inspector pays a surprise visit. He asks the class: "Who brought down the Walls of Jericho?"
Dead silence.
He points to a small boy at the back. "You there – who brought down the Walls of Jericho?"
"Sir, it wasn't me."
The inspector is astounded by this ignorance. He turns to the teacher. "Did you hear that?"
"Yes. But I know this boy. Also his brothers and sisters. And his parents, the whole family. They're totally respectable. If he says he didn't bring down the Walls of Jericho, I think we must believe him."
The inspector turns on his heel and makes for the principal's office. "Can you believe the answers I've just had?" He relates what transpired.
The principal says: "Look, that teacher is one of my best. She's been here for years. If she says she believes the boy didn't bring down the Walls of Jericho, I think we must go along with it."
The inspector finds a telephone and dials somebody very, very senior in the Education Department. He tells him the whole story.
"Hey, this is tricky," says the very, very senior person. "I tell you what. Get three quotes, add 50 percent and I'll get my brother-in-law to fix these Walls of Jericho."
Last word
America is the only country where a significant proportion of the population believes that professional wrestling is real but the moon landing was faked. ~ David Letterman
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