NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 2022

The December lecture was by Dr Vicky Heunis on Keepsakes of conflict: The Art of Prisoners of War from St. Helena and her excellent presentation is already in the ZOOM library on the web-site.

What would have surprised many was that the PoWs had even built a handful of wind-powered lathes on which items were turned; your walking stick or pipe or even furniture could be ordered to suit. Specialists could polish your items too! A market for their goods was set up in Holland and helped to keep the PoWs going.

It was interesting that 2 separate camps were established - the Transvalers and the Orange Free Staters seem to have had some considerable niggle despite their shared warfare against Britain - so each kept their own camp. Dr Heunis works at the Museum of the Boer Republics in Bloemfontein and while only a small fraction of their collection is on display, it would appear very much worth your while to visit.

Their e-mail is museum@anglo-boer.co.za and you can access names and details of PoWs from the Anglo-Boer (SA) War online at www.anglo-boer.co.za

Let scribe@samilitaryhistory.org know in order to be sent an invitation to the next ZOOM meeting.

Contact Ulrich Duebi for details about the lecture: ulric@worldonline.co.za or 084 324 6583

Our next zoom lecture will be on Thursday 13th January starting at 19h30

Speaker: Jan-Willem Hoorweg
Subject: Adolf Galland, German Fighter Ace of the Second World War

Adolf Galland was a German Luftwaffe general and fighter ace who served throughout WW2 in Europe, flying 705 combat missions in the defence of the Reich. This talk will deal with his early life, his experiences during the Spanish Civil War and the first few years of WW2, followed by his experiences as General of the Fighters.

Next zoominar will be on Monday 10th January starting at 19h30

Speaker: Barry Irwin
Subject: The extraction of the Norwegian national gold reserves after the German invasion in 1940.

Their less formal gathering, RPC (request the pleasure of your company), will resume on Monday 31 January as a ZOOMinar. In the second session Nick Cowley is to review the book "I deserted Rommel" by Gunther Bahnemann.

The Journal is at the printers. You will soon be asked if you want to collect from a hub once the potential hubs have indicated their willingness to serve again.

Members with an interesting presentation on any aspect of military history are sought for ZOOMINARS and ZOOMeetings. A nominal 30-40 minute lecture supported by Power Point or similar slides / photographs, but not video, is required

The Society currently boasts over 350 members.

Eastern Cape branch (SAMHSEC) with 66 members has grown to within a single member of KZN branch. ZOOMINARS are hosted twice a month by SAMHSEC.

Cape Town has yet to resume meetings.

KZN has resumed live lecture meetings, albeit on a Saturday afternoon instead of a Thursday evening.

Johannesburg has 191 members but only a fraction of these are Zoominati. In-person meetings will need more committee members to step forward for organising things with the Museum. Staff at the Museum are reluctant to stay until 20h00 for us to start, let alone 22h30 to lock up, while their work day ends before 16h00 and transport was a problem under curfews.

There are twenty overseas members, several of whom joined last year. Also, six life members who joined years ago while living in South Africa, now live overseas.

Around thirty members continue to receive their newsletters by snail-mail which means in many cases they miss out on advance notice of what is happening.

Cape Town details contact    Carl Burger     082 333 2706    c.burger@bissets.com

Eastern Cape details contact    Malcolm Kinghorn    041-373-4469    culturev@lantic.net

Gauteng details contact    Joan Marsh     010-237-0676    joan@rfidradar.com

KwaZulu-Natal details contact    Charles Whiteing     082-555-4689    charlesw2@absamail.co.za