KWAZULU-NATAL BRANCH

Newsletter No. 434
April 2012

The Darrell Hall Memorial Lecture ('DDH") was presented by fellow member Charles Whiteing entitled "U Boats - the Final Days".

As head of Germany's U Boat fleet, Admiral Karl Donitz devised new tactics and strategies, the best known being that of the U-Boat Wolf Packs. He achieved the highest standards of seamanship among his men, developing close ties and even remembered them by name. He insisted they had the best ration allocations and ensured they received a special pay allowance when on operations. When each U Boat returned from a patrol, he attempted to personally welcome it`s crew back. He minimized red tape to ensure that any awards due to the crew were presented by him as soon as the boat docked. He arranged for a special luxury express train to ferry the crews back to Germany when they went on leave. The affection for his men was reciprocated in full by his crews, who referred to him as "Onkel Karl" or Uncle Karl. When Grand Admiral Erick Raeder resigned after a disagreement with Hitler in January 1943, Karl Donitz was appointed Grand Admiral of the German Navy. By 1943, Germany's manpower was stretched to the limit and although Albert Speer's construction program replaced lost and damaged boats, the training period for new replacement crews was shortened in an attempt to keep pace with the expansion of their submarine fleet. The result was that submarines were now putting to sea with inexperienced crews. On the 1 March 1943, Germany had 70 boats on station worldwide with 114 in transit or in harbour. The Wolf Pack War in the Atlantic was now at its peak, with 42 U - Boats attacking 100 merchant ships and their escorts. During a three week period, the German navy cryptographic section - known as B-Dienst; had deciphered 175 Allied radio signals. These revealed that two eastbound convoys; SC122 and HX 229 had left New York three days apart. These vessels contained vital war munitions including foodstuffs, locomotives, aircraft and tanks. On March 12th 1943, Admiral Donitz ordered the largest concentration of submarines ever to be deployed. It was comprised of three groups. The first, "Raubgraf" (Robber Baron) was to patrol north eastward off the Newfoundland coast, and the other two groups; Sturmer (Daredevil), and Dranger (Harrier) forming picket lines some 200-300 miles wide in the mid Atlantic, a gap that lay beyond the reach of land based Allied aircraft. However, a third convoy, HX229 took a northernmost route and bypassed the prowling submarines. On the 16 March in the predawn darkness, the two convoys had so far remained undetected. However the quartermaster on U-653 saw a brief flash of light directly ahead. This submarine was one of the Raubgraf group and was returning homeward on the surface. She had found herself in the middle of convoy HX 229. She was low on fuel, with a defective diesel engine and had only one remaining torpedo. U-653 radioed Naval Headquarters, which in turn ordered all the submarines from the three groups to converge on the convoy. A total of 21 ships totalling 141,000 tons were sunk. The British Admiralty stated that "the Germans never came so near as to disrupting communication between the New World and the Old as in those first 21 days of March 1943."

However by autumn, Donitz realized the U-Boat war was foundering and he dispatched his Wolf Packs to harass the convoy routes off the coast of South Africa and the Indian Ocean. Convoy escorts were now bigger and better equipped, The Allied "air umbrella" range was improving, with Liberators now fitted with extra fuel tanks, allowing them to remain airborne for 16 hours, and by the end of May 1943, there were 70 aircraft in service. On May 4;1945 Donitz broadcasted a cease fire order to all his U-Boat commanders. The signal read; "You have fought like lions, unbeaten and unblemished, you lay down your arms after a heroic battle without equal."

The main talk was presented by guest speaker Stephen Coan entitled "Rider Haggard and the Anglo-Zulu War".
Henry Rider Haggard in a 1908 magazine article - "The Zulus: The Finest Savage Race in the World" a sanguinary account of nineteenth-century Zulu history with much emphasis on the tyranny of King Shaka kaSenzangakhona. In the same article Haggard set out his views on the origins of the Anglo-Zulu War: "Cetywayo [sic] found his position very difficult, he had an enormous army of sixty or seventy thousand warriors who clamoured continually for war. He would have fought the Boers, but the English prevented him by annexing the Transvaal; indeed, as I have reason to know, that was the principal motive for this much misrepresented act. He would have fought the Swazis, but the English prevented him again. So things went on until at length Sir Bartle Frere issued his ultimatum, and he fought us because he had no-one else to fight."

That Haggard had "reason to know" was due to the fact that he was living in Pretoria at the time of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. He was 22-years old and his literary fame lay in the future. Best known as the author of African tales of adventure, notably King Solomon's Mines (1885), Allan Quatermain (1886) and She (1886), Haggard wrote of the Anglo-Zulu War several times. His first book, Cetywayo and His White Neighbours (1882), a work of non-fiction, was an examination of British relations with the Zulus and the Boers prior to the war. He subsequently wrote a factual account of the battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift for Andrew Lang's The True Story Book (1893). The battle of Isandlwana features three times in Haggard's fiction, in The Witch's Head (1884), Black Heart and White Heart (1896) and Finished (1916), the final volume in Haggard's trilogy dealing with the history of the Zulus in the nineteenth century. Haggard's own reminiscences of his life in South Africa at the time of the war can be found in his autobiography The Days of My Life (1926). Ironically, though the Zulu people and their country, Zululand, feature prominently in Haggard's writing, during the years he lived in South Africa as a young man (from 1875 to 1881) he never visited Zululand. Haggard only travelled north of the Thukela River, the traditional boundary between Natal and Zululand, in 1914, when, at the age of 58, he came to South Africa as a member of the Dominions Royal Commission. Once his official duties with the commission were over he went on a tour of Zululand which included visits to the battlefields of Isandlwana, Gingindhlovu and Ulundi. His account of this trip can be found in Diary of an African Journey, published for the first time in 2000, seventy-five years after Haggard's death in 1925.

Henry Rider Haggard was born on 22 June 1856 at Bradenham, Norfolk. In 1875 Haggard's parents arranged for Rider, as he was always called, to become an unpaid member of the staff of Sir Henry Bulwer, a family friend, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. On arrival in Pietermaritzburg, Natal's capital, Haggard was put in charge of the catering and given other duties of a secretarial nature during the course of which he met many famous Natalians of the day, among them Theophilus Shepstone, the Secretary for Native Affairs, who became his friend and mentor. In December 1876 Haggard joined Shepstone's mission sent to annex the Boer republic of the Transvaal. The annexation was intended as part of the push for a confederation of southern African states under British influence. In the Transvaal; after lengthy negotiations; one-part diplomacy, one-part stone-walling, Shepstone annexed the Transvaal. In order to avoid inflaming local feeling when the proclamation of annexation was read out in Pretoria on 12 April 1877 the hoisting of the Union Jack was postponed. It was finally raised on 24 May, Queen Victoria's birthday, and the young Haggard helped to run it up the flagstaff.

Later whilst still in Pretoria, the Anglo-Zulu War began. The advent of the war had long been a subject of correspondence home. Haggard wrote to his mother on 4 March 1878. "The Zulu business hangs fire but that cloud will surely burst. We have got troops coming and now is our time to crush the Zulus." Haggard's comment clearly shows his bias towards the hawkish Shepstone/Frere camp.

Indeed young Haggard was decidedly optimistic at the prospect of war with the Zulus: "It must come sometime so I think it may as well come now. We shall have to fight like rats in a corner, but we shall lick them and there will be an end of it. I do not think a Zulu War will be a long one: they will not hide in Kloofs and Mountains like these other wretches (the Pedi) but come into the open and fight it out."

The war Haggard so eagerly anticipated loomed closer with the delivery of High Commissioner Sir Bartle Frere's Ultimatum to the Zulus on 11 December 1878. Haggard, writing his autobiography in 1912, is less bellicose than his youthful self. "I still think, perhaps erroneously that this ultimatum was a mistake, I incline to the view that it would have been wiser to remonstrate with the Zulus and trust to the doctrine of chances, for this reason: neither Cetewayo nor his people wished to fight the English; had Cetewayo wished it he could have swept Natal from end to end after our defeat at Isandhlwana. But what I heard he said at the time was to this effect: `The English are attacking me in my country, and I will defend myself in my country. I will not send my impis to kill them in Natal, because I and those who went before me have always been good friends with the English.' So it came about that he forbade his generals to cross the boundary of Natal.

"Whichever view may be right, the fact remains that the ultimatum was issued and from that moment war was inevitable. Our generals and soldiers entered on it with the lightest of hearts; notwithstanding the difficulties and scarcity of transport they took them with them their cricketing outfit into Zululand. This I know, since I was commissioned to bring home a wicket that was found on the field of Isandhlwana, and return it to the headquarters of a regiment to which it belonged, to be kept as a relic."

Following a lively question and answer debate the vote of thanks was presented by Professor Philip Everitt who congratulated both speakers on their research and presentations.

THE SOCIETY'S NEXT MEETING:
Thursday 12th April 2012 - 19h00 for 19h30.
Venue: Murray Theatre, Dept of Civil Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.
The Darrell Hall (DDH) Memorial Lecture will be- The Fall of Singapore by Bill Brady.

The Main Talk will be presented by guest speaker Pam McFadden (the Curator of the internationally acclaimed Talana Museum, Dundee) on Impressions of Battlefields

FUTURE SOCIETY DATES: May - July 2012

10th May 2012
DDH - My experiences as a NSM Gunner in Op. Savannah, 1976 by Jeremy Day.
Main - Tunnels from the Frontier Forts by Donald Davies.

14th June 2012
DDH - Heritage and Environmental Assessments by Jean Beater.
Main - Maj Gen Sir Charles Warren in Northern Natal by Prof Philip Everitt.

12th July
DDH - The lonely Boer graves of St. Helena by Jayne Moir.
Main - Nazis on Ice by Colin Dean.

The AGM will take place at the April meeting which will be chaired by Ken Gillings. If you wish to nominate any individual for the committee or chairman please contact Ken Gillings, you all have his details.

Day Tours - Bluff gun emplacements and the Holocaust Museum have been recommended. Brian Hoffmann and Charles Whiteing will finalise and make the necessary arrangements.

Annual subs - are currently due and members are reminded to pay promptly otherwise they will be removed from the 'nominal roll' and not receive the journals or newsletters.

Purnell's history of WW2. Five of the collections of six volumes of Purnell's history of WW2 have been donated. They are in a very good condition. Price R150,00 as a donation going to the Society. Anyone interested please contact Bill Brady on Tel nos. 031 561 5542 / 083 228 5485 on e mail address on newsletter.

2012 BATTLEFIELD TOUR. This will deal with the 1906 Poll Tax / Bambata / Bhambatha Rebellion. Date: 27th / 28th October 2012. Accommodation at a special rate has been negotiated with the George Hotel in Eshowe; Tel 035 474 4919, e-mail reception@eshowe.com. Please liaise with Lee Anne. Provisional Programme: 27th October: Greytown Museum, Ambush Rock at Mpanza, Kranskop, Ndondonwana. 28th October: King Cetshwayo's death site, King Cetshwayo's Grave, Mome Gorge Battlefield. Kindly let Ken Gillings know if you intend joining the tour: ken.gillings@mweb.co.za. Speakers will be Brian Thomas, Lt Col Dr Graeme Fuller, Ken Gillings and we hope a member of the Shezi community.

FUTURE SOCIETY DATES: April - June 2012

12th April 2012
DDH - The Fall of Singapore by Bill Brady.
Main - Impressions of Battlefields by Pam McFadden.

10th May 2012
DDH - My experiences as a NSM Gunner in Op. Savannah, 1976 by Jeremy Day.
Main - Tunnels from the Frontier Forts by Donald Davies.

14th June 2012
DDH - Heritage and Environmental Assessments by Jean Beater. Main - Maj Gen Sir Charles Warren in Northern Natal by Prof Philip Everitt.

The AGM will take place at the April meeting which will be chaired by Ken Gillings. At the last committee meeting we lost two excellent committee members, namely Dr. Graeme Fuller, due to business pressures, and of course Prof. Mike Laing has passed on.

If you wish to nominate any individual for the committee or chairman please contact Ken Gillings, you all have his details.

Day Tours - Bluff gun emplacements and the Holocaust Museum have been recommended. Brian Hoffmann and Charles Whiteing will finalise and make the necessary arrangements.

Annual subs - are currently due and members are reminded to pay promptly otherwise they will be removed from the scroll and not receive the journals or newsletters.

Newsletters - Due to cost and time required it has been decided to phase out posting the newsletter. All members are requested to cooperate and provide an e mail address.

Membership Forms - are available on request.

Purnell's history of WW2. Five of the collection of six volumes of Purnell's history of WW2 have been donated. They are in a very good condition. Price R200,00 as a donation going to the Society. Anyone interested please contact Bill Brady on Tel nos. 031 561 5542 / 083 228 5485 on e mail address on newsletter.

2012 BATTLEFIELD TOUR. We have received several suggestions for the 2012 Battlefield Tour. These include the Brandwater Basin (in the Eastern Free State) and the 1906 Poll Tax ('Bhambatha') Rebellion. The former would necessitate a long weekend or taking leave on a Friday or Monday. The decision was therefore made to cover the latter over the weekend of the 27th / 28th October 2012. The George Hotel in Eshowe has offered the Society a very favourable rate and those intending to join the tour will be required to book directly with them. Details will follow in subsequent newsletters.