With August being Women’s Month, it is SAMHSEC’s pleasure to recognise our lady members and zoominar participants. Thank you for your contributions, Ladies; without you SAMHSEC would be a dull affair, indeed!
Having a lady on our current committee has eluded us to date. Your committee looks forward to welcoming at least one lady member aboard.
The Military Bookshop
Emsie van den Berg’s The Military Bookshop has a big collection on various military topics.
She distributes an advertisement every Thursday on a WhatsApp group where people can order books.
Please contact Emsie on 082 264 1953 if you are interested in joining the group and receiving her weekly advertisement.
SAMHSEC 10 July 2023 meeting
Helmoed Heitman told us about the major units of the WW 2 German Navy.
The battles and loss of the Graf Spee, Bismarck and Scharnhorst are well known, but the actions of the other major units less so. These are briefly outlined below.
Schleswig Holstein fired the first shots of WW 2, bombarding Polish positions near Danzig. She and sister Schlesien took part in the invasion of Denmark and Norway before reverting to training. Later Schlesien shelled advancing Russian forces and served as an anti-aircraft battery. Schleswig Holstein sank in 1944 after being bombed. Schlesien survived to become a Russian target ship.
Scheer cruised in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean from October 1940 to March 1941, sinking HMS Jervis Bay> and 16 cargo ships. She tied down three carriers, eight cruisers and one merchant cruiser. In August 1942 she deployed into the Arctic in Operation Wunderland, sinking an icebreaker (36 rounds, four hits) and shelling the port and weather station at Port Dikson.
Lützow sank two ships and captured one in 1939 and then took part in the invasion of Norway in 1940. In 1942 she sortied for Operations Rösselsprung, which led to the scattering of Convoy PQ17, and Regenbogen, which saw a clash with HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica. She then served as a training ship until bombed on 13 April 1945, although she continued to use her 11-inch guns to shell advancing Russian forces until 4 May.
Blücher had a very short career, being sunk by gunfire and torpedoes from shore forts in 1940 while trying to land troops at Oslo.
Hipper sank HMS Glowworm while on the way to land troops at Trondheim in April 1940 and HMT Juniper and the troopship Orama in June. In November in Operation Nordseetour she damaged two ships of Convoy WS5A and hit HMS Berwick with six 8-inch shells, taking her out of the war until June. In February 1942 she sank a straggler and then 14 of 19 ships of Convoy SLS64. In September she covered minelaying off Novaya Zemlya. In October she sank a tanker and its escort in the same area. In December she sank HMS Achates during Operation Regenbogen but was damaged by HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica.
Prinz Eugen survived the Bismarck action and the Channel Dash of 1942 but was relegated to training duties until 1944 and 1945 when she carried out shore bombardment in the Baltic. She survived the war, was transferred to the US Navy and used as an atom bomb target in 1946.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau mainly worked together. In November 1939 Scharnhorst sank HMS Rawalpindi. In April 1940 the two clashed with HMS Renown but broke off the action for fear of torpedo attack by accompanying destroyers. On 8 June Scharnhorst sank the tanker Oil Pioneer and later the same day the pair sank HMS Glorious and her two destroyers HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta. In January 1941 the two conducted Operation Berlin in the Atlantic, sinking 21 ships and capturing one. In February 1942 came the ‘Channel Dash’ when they and Prinz Eugen sailed from Brest to Germany through the English Channel. In September 1943 Scharnhorst together with Tirpitz carried out a raid against shore facilities on Spitzbergen in Operation Zitronella.
Tirpitz sortied for Rösselsprung against Convoy PQ17, but saw action only once, in Operation Zitronella.
Helmoed’s presentation is in SAMHS' Zoom library.
SAMHSEC RPC 31 July 2023
In session 1, Franco Cilliers told us about Sergeant Joseph R. Beyrle, who was the only American soldier known to have served in combat with both the United States Army and the Soviet Red Army in World War 2.
Beyrle joined the US Army in 1941 and became a paratrooper in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of 101st Airborne Division. He specialised in radio communications and demolition. He was stationed in England and participated in two missions to occupied France in 1944 in support of the French Resistance.
On D-Day his C-47 came under fire and he was forced to jump from 360 feet. After landing in Saint-Come-Du-Mont he lost contact with his unit. He damaged a power station and performed other sabotage before being captured.
During the next seven months he was held in seven POW camps and escaped twice. During the second escape, he and his companions boarded a train they thought was going to Poland but ended up in Berlin. The Gestapo tortured Beyrle before he was sent to Stalag III-C POW Camp, from which he escaped in January 1945 and headed east.
Beyrle encountered a Soviet tank brigade and yelled “Amerikansky tovarishch!”. He was able to persuade the commander, Aleksandra Samusenko, to allow him to join them.
He was wounded in the first week of February 1945 and evacuated to hospital. While there, he was visited by Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who was intrigued by this non-Soviet soldier and provided Beryle with papers to travel to Moscow. On arrival at the US Embassy, he learned that he had been declared KIA on 10 June 1944. A Funeral Mass had been said and his obituary published. He was repatriated in April 1945.
Beyrle was married in 1946 by the same priest who had said his Funeral Mass. He and his wife had a daughter and two sons. The elder son served in 101st airborne in Vietnam. The younger son was the US Ambassador to Russia from 2008 to 2012.
The link to Franco’s presentation is https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KMuuiKP4GqIfHEOKIAXR9nOgzNRusJs0/view?u sp=sharing
In session 2 Malcolm Kinghorn discussed a book about a soldier’s pet.
On the outbreak of WW 1 in August 1914, veterinarian Lt Harry Colebourn of the Fort Garry Horse, a Canadian Militia cavalry regiment, volunteered for service. On 24 August, while en route to Valcartier to report to the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps (CAVC) as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, he bought a young female bear cub for $20 at a train stop in White River, Ontario.
The cub's mother was probably killed in the spring of 1914 when the cub was very young and could most easily have become socialised to humans.
The name of the hunter who sold the bear and who presumably provided the bear's early socialisation is unknown.
Colebourn named the bear "Winnipeg", "Winnie" for short, after his home city of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The bear accompanied Colebourn to England, becoming the mascot of the CAVC and a pet to the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade Headquarters. Before leaving for France, Colebourn left her at the London Zoo.
Her eventual destination was to have been the Winnipeg Zoo, but at the end of the war, Colebourn decided to allow her to remain at the London Zoo, where she was much loved for her playfulness and gentleness. She died in 1934.
Winnie is best-remembered for inspiring A.A. Milne character, Winnie-the-Pooh. Milne & illustrator E.H. Shepard both served in the British Army in France in WW 1, Milne in the infantry & Shepard in the artillery. Shepard was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry during the Battle of Arras.
SAMHSEC 14 August 2023 meeting
Stephen Bowker is to talk about the career and military service of Lady Sue Ryder.
SAMHSEC RPC 28 August 2023
SAMHSEC has Requested the Pleasure of your Company (RPC) since 27 July 2020.
RPCs originated with our migration from room to zoom to promote communication amongst our members. Average attendance of the 34 RPCs to date is 35 and holding. Thank you to everyone whose company we have had the pleasure of sharing.
As a reminder: in the past, RPCs have been on the last Monday of the month. First sessions have been for discussing general military history and second sessions for discussing military history books. We observe military etiquette and discuss neither politics, religion nor the ladies. Presentations should last approximately 15 minutes to allow time for sharing the pleasure of one another’s company. You can do any number of RPC presentations per year.
With the third anniversary of our RPCs to hand, it is time is to consider the future of RPCs, so SAMHSEC again Requests the Pleasure of your Company to talk about military history on 28 August 2023.
In session 1, we will discuss participants’ suggestions for future RPCs. We look forward to an active discussion.
28 August 2023 at 1930 South African time
Session 2
This session is available for you to share a military history related book. Please contact André at andrecrozier@gmail.com if you want to use this opportunity. 28 August 2023 at 2015 South African time
SAMHSEC