The November meeting of the Society was addressed by Major John Morrison, whose subject was "Arnhem: A Glider Pilot Remembers".

John Morrison was commander of 5 Wing of the Glider Pilot Regiment and was involved in the attack of the 1st Air Landing Brigade at Arnhem. The Allied plans of the Arnhem attack were captured by the Germans following the downing of a glider in the initial assault. General Student, the local German Army commander, organised a fighter attack to intercept the incoming troop transports and gliders. Fortunately for John Morrison and the other men in his wave their departure was delayed by bad weather. His Horsa glider carried a jeep, 6 pounder gun and crew. A total of 1,336 Dakotas, 367 Stirlings and 1,204 gliders took part in the airborne assault. 57 British and American gliders failed to reach their destination. They were fired on by flak batteries, but, these were silenced by Typhoons. After landing safely the glider pilots joined the rear company of the 7th King's Own Scottish Borderers.

The glider pilots were then strafed by 15 Fw 190s. They suffered no casualties but battalion headquarters lost 3 men. They were then involved in the heavy and confused fighting in the area between Wolfheze and Oosterbeek. After an abortive attempt to capture a German half-track they were found by a member of the Dutch resistance. John was gIven shelter by a Dutch vet. After protracted efforts to rejoin the main British forces, including a surprIse attack on German soldiers who had alighted from their vehicles, John eventually returned to the vet's house were he was captured some time after. The airborne troops were supposed to hold for 2 days, it was now D+10.

The vote of thanks for an extremely interesting lecture was proposed by Dr. Ron Sinclair. John was particularly skilful in explaining the overall events of Operation Market Garden and his personal role in the airborne attack.

The Meeting opened with the latest Metro Goldwyn Hall production dealing with the German attack on the Polish fortifications at Westerplatte at Danzig. The German battleship Schleswig Holstein was particularly prominent in the attack. The Polish position was taken but at the cost of disproportionately high German casualties.

Members will be sorry to hear that we are losing Major Darrell Hall to Durban. He is moving there at the end of the year. Johannesburg's loss is certainly Durban's gain. Darrell has contributed enormously to the activities of the Society over many years and his presence will be sorely missed. However, we still hope to see Darrell at the occassional(sic) Johannesburg meeting and wish him and Sue every happiness in their move.

Future Meetings

Johannesburg - December 14th - Film Evening - "Waterloo".

- January 11th - Dr. G.A. Christidis - "Common-sense Military Blunders".

- February 15th - Dr. C. Mazansky - "Cigarette Cards: A Pictorial Source of British Imperial and Colonial Military History".

The Johannesburg Meetings take place in the J.C. Lemmer Auditorium, S.A. National Museum of Military History, Saxonwold, Johannesburg, at 20h00.

Military Biographies

Ian Uys is currently compiling a book of over 1,000 biographies relating to South African military history. He would appreciate hearing from members with any biographical information about noted military personalities. The completed work should provide a most useful reference to military historians. Ian's address is ...

Railay Military History

The S.A. National Railway and Steam Museum wishes to contact anyone interested in carrying out research for the Museum on railway military history in South Africa, possibly on a sponsorship basis. Interested persons should contact Mr. L.E. Posniak at ... Auckland Park, Johannesburg, 2006.

Season's Greetings

It hardly seems possible that we are at the end of another year already. On behalf of the Committee I would like to wish all members and friends of the Society a very happy Christmas and everything of the best for 1990.

STEWART STILES