Western Cape Numismatic Society

On 8th April, 2021, the British newspaper Daily Mail published a report that a petition would be submitted to Britain’s Government under the following heading “The hero snubbed for being black: Petition is launched to award Victoria Cross to South African WWII hero who snuck(sic) aboard Nazi ship and blew it up with bomb he built from a tin of condensed milk - but was denied medal due to his race.”1

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The text goes on with the following assertion “British generals nominated Job Maseko for a VC, but his South African commanders found the idea of a black man receiving such a prestigious medal ahead of his white peers alarming”.

The report continues “Instead, he was awarded the Military Medal - the lowest bravery honour at the time - for his 'ingenuity, determination, and complete disregard of personal safety' after he sank the German ship in Tobruk harbour in 1942.”

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The Mail adds “Now a Somerset man, Bill Gillespie, is fighting to right what he sees as a massive injustice and has started a petition. Job used his experience as a miner before the war to make the bomb himself - out of a tin of condensed milk, a long fuse and gunpowder”.

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The rather brief petition omitted factual data that might support the request for awarding a posthumous Victoria Cross. The names of the British generals supposed to have recommended the award the Victoria Cross are not mentioned. The South African commanders alleged to have stopped the award of the VC are not identified either. There are also some factual errors.

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The petition was rejected in 2021 and a British Parliamentary publication online explains the petition’s rejection simply as: “It’s about honours or appointments,” and “We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards”.2

Corporal Job Maseko was among the soldiers of the 2nd SA Infantry Division taken Prisoner of War on the 21st of June, 1942, when Major-General H.B. Klopper, surrendered Tobruk to German commander, Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. Of the 10 722 South Africans 1 200 were Native Military Corps soldiers.

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The 1929 Convention on the treatment of POW, allowed fit Other Ranks to be made to work and Maseko and others were set to unloading German cargo vessels in Tobruk harbour and this gave him an opportunity to sabotage a ship.3

His pre-war experience with explosives at the Daggafontein Wes Gold Mine enabled him to assemble a small explosive device, using a milk tin, a roughly made fuse 36 feet long, and the propellant taken from cartridges, always to be found on the ground where soldiers had dropped them. He carried the bomb in his haversack until his work led him into a German freighter moored at the dockside and laden with petrol drums and jerry cans. When he lit the fuse at the end of a working day fellow prisoners, including Andrew Mohudi, Sam Police, and Koos Williams, distracted their German guard with conversation. After the POW had returned to the camp where they were held, they saw black smoke rising from the docks and then heard explosions. The next day the POW were briefly questioned about smoking on board the ship but denied smoking. Later Maseko and another escaped from the POW camp and after 23 days of walking through the desert they were picked up by an armoured car and returned to the South African forces.

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Allegations that senior South African officers blocked the award of the VC have often appeared in the media and in some politicians’ speeches. All appear unaware that after recommendations commenced on the level of the SA forces in the Western Desert, they would proceed to higher British commanders to be recommended to the King via the War Office authorities and usually a board of officers.

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A search for reliable evidence of what was written about the award of the Military Medal to L/Cpl Job Masego, revealed nothing of value. The assertion that he had been refused the award of the Victoria Cross appeared to originate in the autobiography of South African official war artist Neville Lewis, Studio Encounters. The book contains no supporting information. Lewis did not identify any source for his allegation or first-hand evidence.4 He briefly mentions an outline of the events perhaps told him by Maseko while sitting for his portrait. Lewis expressed his opinion that Maseko should have received the VC. But then he went on to blandly add the allegation that Lance-Corporal Job Maseko was blocked from receiving a Victoria Cross because “he was only an African”.

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Neville Lewis might have been an able artist, but he was no historian nor was he on the Army’s General Staff. Though a soldier during the First World War, he really could have known nothing about processing recommendations for decorations for bravery.5 His story betrays complete ignorance of the attention and care given by Colonel H.O. Sayer, Deputy Director Non-European Army Services, to checking Maseko’s statement and how few VCs were awarded to South Africans. Besides, citations are always kept secret to avoid disappointment if the award is refused and the Corporal would not have been told of any recommendation.

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In 2017, research in the SANDF’s archives included time spent examining the file which contained the original citation for an honour.6 Though notes made at the time were kept they are not now to be found. Reliance must therefore be placed on memory.

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The file in the Defence Force archive shows that after Maseko was questioned, as was usual with an escaped POW, every effort was made to find evidence of what he had done. Col H.O. Sayer, who had to recommend the citation to the next level of command, believed the account given by the courageous Corporal. As citations for decorations for bravery require evidence, Sayer took Maseko to Tobruk to indicate where he remembered the cargo ship had been moored. A diver found the ship. Though the Germans had dragged it away from the dock, it was close to where Maseko indicated. The diver found sufficient evidence to confirm that there had been a fire in the German ship. Maseko’s description of the Germans’ reactions suggested that that they had suspected carelessness but not sabotage. Maseko and his companions were thus not suspected, and they were not closely interrogated. His planning and executing the sabotage was ingenious and courageous and he certainly deserved recognition. There can be little doubt that if the Germans had suspected sabotage Maseko and his companions would not have survived. The enemy’s failure to investigate the sinking thoroughly suggests that Maseko was not in direct or immediate danger, and it would have been very difficult to make a case for the VC.