Month: January 2016

A tank called Jannie Smuts

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Italy 1944, a crew of the Pretoria Tank Regiment, 6th South African Armoured Division, christen their Sherman tank with the names of Prime Minister, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, during their advance north of Rome.

Jan Smuts and his wife, Isie K. Smuts affectionally known as “Ouma” (Grandmother) by the troops proved incredibly popular to South African servicemen during the Second World War.  In part because of the compassion shown to the troops via the South African Gifts and Comforts Fund run by “Ouma” Smuts and the annual gift packs sent to all in service during the war.

The Pretoria Regiment featured here in Italy, went on claim great status as a fighting Armoured Regiment.  It was formed in Pretoria on 1 July 1913 as the 12th Infantry (Pretoria Regiment) – a unit of the Active Citizen Force – by the amalgamation of several units: the Pretoria Company of the Transvaal Scottish, the Central South African Railway Volunteers, the Northern Mounted Rifles and the Pretoria detachment of the Transvaal Cycle and Motor Corps. In 1928, it was renamed The Pretoria Regiment.

On 24 October 1930 it was once again renamed, to The Pretoria Regiment P.A.O. (Princess Alice’s Own). During World War II, the Regiment was converted to an armoured formation attached to the 11th South African Armoured Brigade, South African 6th Armoured Division.

In Italy the Pretoria Regiment (PAO) was the armoured regiment for the British 24th Guards Brigade (Grenadiers, Coldstream and Scots Guards) in the 6th SA Armoured Division. At the end of six months together, in honour of fighting prowess of the Pretoria Regiment (POA), the Brigade Commander obtained King’s permission for award to the Pretoria Regiment (PAO) of a theatre honour in the form of stylised wings in Guards Brigade colours.  This is carried on the Pretoria Regiment’s insignia to this day.

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After the Second World War the unit was demobilised, and in 1946 it was re-organised as a part-time force, consisting of two separate regiment-sized formations. These were re-integrated in 1954. After the establishment of the Republic of South Africa in 1961, the unit was again renamed The Pretoria Regiment by the South African Defence Force.

Since the end of compulsory national service in 1994.  As part of the SANDF Reserve the Pretoria Regiment now recruits volunteers from among former Reserve and Regular Force soldiers and focussing on University of Pretoria students, men and women.

Image Copyright Imperial War Museum Collection.  Image of insignia courtesy Dudley Wall. Reference – The Pretoria Regiment by Brig Gen (Ret) D Fourie and wikipedia

The need for South Africa to hold onto Namibia for as long as it did.

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The capture of German South West Africa as part of the start of World War One, by South Africa, had a profound impact on the next 100 years of South Africa’s history. Whilst its invasion was important to the outcome of WW1, its period as a protectorate of South Africa’s after the war had a longer and more profound impact.

Politically speaking, the incorporation of the South West African white electorate into the South African electorate after the National Party came to power in 1948, set South Africa on a path which was to see it embroiled in a two and a half decade long war with South West Africa’s liberation movement and Angolan coalition forces (1966-1989).

The inclusion of this very pro German – anti British ‘whites only’ South West African voters into South African elections provided the National Party with a very large loyal voting block – it added to the campaign to reconcile constituencies to keep Smuts’ old United Party from getting back into power. Between 1950 and 1977, whites in the territory were represented in the South African Parliament by four Senators and six Ministers of Parliament.

Its also this loyal base of conservative white voters that the National Party found obligated to, so much so it was prepared for a protracted war to keep them.  The National Party in some senses saw South West Africa as a 5th province of South Africa and not an independent state.

It’s a fascinating period of South Africa’s history, and very ironic to think that it was this military campaign by Smuts and Botha that started it all.  Funny how history turns out.

South Africa’s World War 1 German South West Africa campaign is best and briefly summarised as follows:

An invasion of German South-West Africa from the south failed at the Battle of Sandfontein (25 September 1914), close to the border with the Cape Colony. German fusiliers inflicted a serious defeat on the British troops and the survivors returned to the Cape Colony.

The Germans began an invasion of South Africa to forestall another invasion attempt and the Battle of Kakamas took place on 4 February 1915, between South African and German forces, a skirmish for control of two river fords over the Orange River.

The South Africans prevented the Germans from gaining control of the fords and crossing the river. By February 1915, the South Africans were ready to occupy German territory.

General Botha put General Smuts in command of the southern forces while he commanded the northern forces.

Botha arrived at Swakopmund on 11 February and continued to build up his invasion force at Walfish Bay (or Walvis Bay), a South African enclave about halfway along the coast of German South West Africa. In March Botha began an advance from Swakopmund along the Swakop valley with its railway line and captured Otjimbingwe, Karibib, Friedrichsfelde, Wilhelmsthal and Okahandja and then entered Windhuk (Windhoek) on 5 May 1915.

The Germans offered surrender terms, which were rejected by Botha and the war continued.

On 12 May Botha declared martial law and divided his forces into four contingents, which cut off German forces in the interior from the coastal regions of Kunene and Kaokoveld and fanned out into the north-east.

The South African column under General Lukin went along the railway line from Swakopmund to Tsumeb. The other two South African columns rapidly advanced on the right flank, Myburgh to Otavi junction and Manie Botha to Tsumeb and the terminus of the railway.

German forces in the north-west fought the Battle of Otavi on 1 July but were defeated and surrendered at Khorab on 9 July 1915. In the south, Smuts landed at the South West African naval base at Luderitzbucht, then advanced inland and captured Keetmanshoop on 20 May. The South Africans linked with two columns which had advanced over the border from South Africa.

Smuts advanced north along the railway line to Berseba and on 26 May, after two day’s fighting captured Gibeon.

The Germans in the south were forced to retreat northwards towards Windhuk and Botha’s force. On 9 July the German forces in the south surrendered.

This German surrender was the first major tactical win of World War 1 for the Entente Alliance’s Allies.

Written and Researched by Peter Dickens.  Reference wikipedia

The sad fate of Pelican 16

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South African Air Force Shackleton 1716 – Pelican 16. This iconic image by photographer Dietmar Eckell for his photo book ‘Happy End’ – stories about miracles in aviation history, says it all.  The fate of Pelican 16 carries with it a tale of heroism and sadness.

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Restored to flying condition by volunteers in 1994, Pelican 16 was offered to take part in the Fairford Military Air Tattoo in the United Kingdom and departed South Africa for England on July 12th, 1994.

The departure from Cape Town (CT) was scheduled for a midnight take-off, on Friday 08 July 1994.  The entire flight from CT to the UK, entailed four legs, with stops in between and the routes were planned for as follow:

a. CT to Libreville, Gabon
b. Libreville to Abidjan, Ivory Coast
c. Abidjan to Lisbon, Portugal
d. Lisbon to Duxford, England

(The return flight to SA, one month later, would have been just the reverse of the above route.)

Flown by a group of active SAAF pilots, Pelican 16 was operating over the Sahara desert  on the night of July 13th.  They were alerted to a warning on #4 engine, indicating signs of overheating, the engine was shutdown, as a precautionary measure and power was increased on the other three engines, in order to maintain the safety altitude.

The propellers on #4 feathered properly. The reason for the indication of overheating, can be contributed to a suspicion of a possible leak within the coolant system. However, within approximately 15 minutes after shutting down #4, sparks were seen emitting from #3, which ensued into flames around the contra-rotating propeller spinners.

The #3 engine was also shutdown, after the flames were successfully extinguished by the activation of the engine fire extinguishing system. However, after shutting down #3, the propellers would not feather completely and remained windmilling at +- 150 RPM.

The aircraft was now rapidly losing height and it was elected to restart #4 to gain height again. Within +- 10 minutes after restarting #4, the engine became so hot, that the exhaust stacks reflected a white magnesium glow. #4 was then shutdown for the second time, but this time round the propellers would not feather completely and they kept windmilling, much faster than those of #3, at +- 650 RPM.

With two sets of windmilling propellers, both on the same wing, a crash landing became inevitable, as asymmetric forces began to gain the upper hand.

The terrain where the crash landing was eventually executed, (approximately 14 km from the Eastern border of West Sahara with Mauritania), was indeed flat sands, but with multiple rocky outcrops in the area. In fact, the impact was, very fortunately, right on top of a slightly raised rocky outcrop and from there the aircraft skidded along the sandy surface, until she suddenly slewed by 90° to the left and thereafter skidded sideways to the right, before coming to a standstill.

The distance from point of impact and coming to a standstill, was paced off later that morning, after it became daylight, to be 243 metres – a very short landing for a Shackleton!

The failure of #3, was determined to be a probable Translation Unit (TU) failure. The TU is situated between the two contra-rotating propellers, inside the engine cowlings. It is attached to the front propeller by three rack bolts and it governs the rear propeller. After removing the front spinner from #3 engine later that morning, quite a few ball-bearings were found to be strewn inside the spinner. That confirmed the suspicion of a TU failure, which resulted on account of the rack bolts that pulled the TU apart. The latter can only be surmised that the cause was on account of the increased RPM on the three remaining engines, after #4 was initially shutdown. Why it happened, is still unknown.

Though none of the crew were seriously injured by the landing, all 19 men were miles from any assistance and in the middle of an active warzone. The crew of Pelican 16 were quickly located and returned safely to South Africa.

Time of the crash landing was at 01h40 GMT.

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This is the photo taken from the French rescue aircraft “Pelican 16” taken after the belly landing in the Sahara desert – the ’19 OK’ written on the ground is to inform any rescue aircraft of the number of surviving souls from the crash.

The original sign on the ground was structured by the laying out of a combination of the spare orange flying suits and the single-man dinghies.

The word “OK” is no longer clearly visible when this photo was taken from the Atlantique ll Maritime aircraft, belonging to the French Navy’s 22 Squadron, that was on detached duty at Dakar, Senegal, from where it was scrambled at 04h00 GMT that morning, to conduct the search of the 19 souls of “Pelican 16”.

She is still where she landed – located about 2 hours drive from Zouérat in northern Mauritania in contested territory – lying open to the desert elements and subject to decay as there is no means of retrieving this beautiful aircraft.

Researched by Peter Dickens. Image Copyright Dietmar Eckell.  Information on the route and sequence of events written by Lionel Ashbury with his kind permission and assistance.

Simonstown Agreement – a thorn in the UN’s position on South Africa

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After the signing of The “Simonstown Agreement”, in this colourful ceremony, the Simon’s Town Naval base was handed over by the British to the Union of South Africa on the 2nd April 1957 – after being in British hands since 1813.

The Simonstown Agreement between the United Kingdom and South Africa had been signed less than two years before this ceremony on 30 June 1955. Under the agreement, the Royal Navy gave up its naval base at Simon’s Town, South Africa, and transferred command of the South African Navy to the government of South Africa.

In return, South Africa promised the use of the Simon’s Town base to Royal Navy ships. The agreement also permitted South Africa to buy six anti submarine frigates, ten coastal minesweepers and four seaward defence boats from the UK valued at £18 million over the next eight years. In effect, the agreement was a mutual defence arrangement aimed at protecting sea routes between the UK and the Middle East.

The agreement was controversial, especially with the United Nations, because of South Africa’s policy of Apartheid. The Agreement stood in stark contrast to United Nations resolutions against South Africa as the United Kingdom was still supporting the South African military by way of this quid pro quo agreement.

The United Kingdom terminated the agreement on 16 June 1975. However, ships of the Royal Navy still continued to call periodically at Simon’s Town and other South African ports, although the Royal Navy was not able to use any South African ports by the time the  Falklands War started in 1982.

South Africa was a member of the Commonwealth at the time the agreement was signed (South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961), so the United Kingdom and South Africa took the position that the agreement was not an international treaty requiring registration with the United Nations under Article 102 of the United Nations Charter and continued regardless of the United Nations’ protests.

A personal perspective 

I often hear this old one from many people “we fought in the First and Second Wold Wars for Britain and in our hour of need they abandoned us” (referring to sanctions and fighting “terrorists”).  Well, that’s not strictly true, the Simonstown Agreement saw to it that South Africa was using British produced Buccaneer Fighter Bombers and Naval vessels at the onset of the Border War and the internal armed insurgency and well into it.  It’s obvious that after 1976 (the Soweto riots) that even this relationship would be strained let alone the implementation of Apartheid Legislation and the withdrawal by the National Party from the British Commonwealth of Nations – which would have made supporting South Africa exceptionally difficult for the United Kingdom in any event – and even then they continued military support well up to, and beyond the point where it became truely internationally impossible to continue to do so.

The South African Naval Forces – WW2

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South Africans in the service of the Royal Navy in World War 2. Here is a great photograph of the members of the South African Division of the Royal Naval Volunteers Reserve on board HMS NELSON posing for the camera between two of the enormous 16 inch guns of A turret. July 1941.

During the war thousands of South African Naval Forces (SANF) members like these were seconded to serve on Royal Navy vessels, almost every large Royal Navy ship had its contingent of South Africans and this is the HMS Nelson’s allocation.  This has a lot to do with the fact that Simonstown in South Africa was a British Naval port.

South African Naval Forces (SANF) in World War 2 where either allocated to Royal Navy ships (titled HMS – His Majesty’s Ship) or on South African Navy ships (tilted HMSAS – His Majesty’s South African Ship).

What is lost on South Africans, and even lost on the British today is that every-time a large British naval vessel was sunk or attacked, South African naval personal on it inevitably lost their lives or where wounded.  These days, South Africans and also the British, very seldom count the sacrifice and commitment of South African men to the Royal Navy (due to this unique arrangement), especially when remembering the great deeds of the Royal Navy during the war.

Image – Imperial War Museum copyright.

The first German General to surrender his forces in WW2 – surrendered to the South Africans

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Nugget of South African military history, the very first German General to formally surrender his forces to the Allies during the Second World War – surrendered to the South African forces in the North African theatre of operations.

Generalleutenant Artur Schmidt was the first German General to formally surrender to a Allied General which was General De Villiers (Commissioner of the South African Police) and Commander of the South African 2nd Infantry Division.

As part of General Rommel’s skillful retreat in December 1941 to the El Aghelia – Marda strongpoint in Libya, key defensive actions where set up at Sollum, Halfaya Pass and Bardia. On 30 December 1941, South African troops supported by a heavy air, sea and land bombardment began their attack on Bardia. A counterattack on the city’s perimeter slowed the advance, but supported by tanks the South Africans launched their final assault on 02 January 1942 to take the city. Seen here on that day is General Schmidt formally surrendering himself and the Italian and German forces under his command to the South Africans.

Ironically the South African 2nd Infantry Division would themselves all become captured at the Fall of Tobruk by Rommel’s German Afrika Korps and other Axis forces on 21 June 1942.

Screen Shot 2016-01-17 at 14.14.16Note the identification patch of the South African 2nd Infantry Division on the person standing on the far right of the image.

Not to be confused with the “capture” of Generalleutnant Johann von Ravenstein a couple of months earlier by New Zealand soldiers.   There is a big difference between a formal surrender of forces to an opposing force, than simply been randomly ‘captured’ driving around in a staff car and taking a wrong turn as General von Ravenstein was. General von Ravenstein did not “surrender” himself nor did he surrender any German forces.

Ironically General von Ravesnstien served the first part of his POW life in South Africa before been shipped of to Canada.

Written and researched by Peter Dickens. Thank you to Sandy Evan Haynes for the background information and to Marc Norman for the image.

South Africa’s Nazi Party; The ‘Gryshemde’

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10404483_10153212904526480_7383389610987690773_nHere is a rare and very unique display of South Africa’s very own Nazi Party’s shirts, flags and bunting.  Of interest, is the use of Orange, Blue and White in the Nazi swastika configuration – this was intentionally done to reflect the national colours of the South African flag at the time, the ‘Oranje-blanje-blou’.

These items  belong to  South Africa’s ‘Greyshirts’, read on for an in-depth chapter in South Africa’s hidden history, here we focus on the SANP  – The South African Christian National Socialist Movement also referenced as the South African Gentile National Socialist Movement. More commonly they were also known at the time as the ‘Gryshemde’ in Afrikaans and ‘Grey-shirts’ in English.

South African statute forces had fought a hard war against Italian Fascism and German Nazism, and the same war had been fought on the ‘home-front’ in South Africa itself, as with the USA and the United Kingdom, South Africa also had its own National Socialist (Nazism) parties prior to the war (it had actually been a quite popular doctrine across many “Western” European states prior to the war)

Imagine the sheer frustration felt by the South African war veterans returning after winning ‘The War for Freedom’ (as Smuts had called WW2 at the time).  This war had been fought with a massive cost in South African lives to rid the world of Nazism and Fascism in the “good fight” – only to come home in 1945 and within three short years in 1948 find South African ‘home grown’ pre-war Nazi and Neo Nazi politicians swept into government. The very men and their philosophy they had gone to war against in the first place.

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During the war the Smuts’ government took severe action against three pro-Nazi South African movements on the Afrikaner right-wing political fringe – the SANP (the Grey-shirts), The ‘New Order’ and the Ossewabrandwag  and jailed their leaders for the duration of the war.

Many of these movement’s leaders and members were folded into National party after the war to one day become South Africa’s political elite (including a  Ossawabrandwag General – BJ Vorster who became a future Prime Minister and State President of South Africa).  See related observation posts by following this link to the Ossewabrandwag “Mein Kampf shows the way to greatness for South Africa” – The Ossewabrandwag and South Africa’s ‘Neuordnung’ and Oswald Pirow

One such South African politician was Louis Theodor Weichardt (21 May 1894 – 26 October 1985) and this is his relatively unknown story of South Africa’s very own Nazi Party.

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Louis Theodor Weichard

Louis Theodor Weichardt was a South African political leader who founded the “Greyshirts”, a National Socialist organisation following German Nazi doctrine.

Louis Weichardt was born in Paarl of German extraction. In Cape Town, on 26 October 1933, he founded South Africa’s Nazi party equivalent – The South African Christian National Socialist Movement (SANP) with a paramilitary section (modelled on Nazi Germany’s brown-shirted Sturmabteilung) called the ‘Gryshemde’ (Grey-shirts).

The “SANP” grew to about 2000 members in South Africa, central to their cause in the 1930’s where Jewish immigrants escaping Nazi Germany to South Africa, and their numbers were growing significantly over the decade – in response the SANP and their Greyshirts launched a campaign calling for an end to Jewish migration and even arranged mass protests in Cape Town.  Their primary communication  mouthpiece was a newspaper called “Die Waarheid” (the truth) which was nothing more than a vehicle to spread Nazi doctrine in South Africa

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The nature of the movement was clearly seen in March 1934 when the SANP held a rally in Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape, Harry Victor Inch – one of the Greyshirt leaders – announced that he had in his possession a ‘stolen’ document from a Port Elizabeth synagogue – signed by its Rabbi – which outlined a secret plot by the Jews to destroy the Christian religion and civilisation.

The Rabbi in question, Rabbi Abraham Levy, took the SANP Greyshirts to court in Grahamstown and in a landmark case the document was scrutinised legally, it was found to be a complete falsehood and fabricated by the SANP. As a result three Greyshirt leaders were fined and  Harry Victor Inch was found guilty of perjury and was sentenced to serve six years and three months in prison for forging documents defaming the Jewish race and swearing under oath that those documents were genuine. Inch and his fellow defendants, David Hermanus Olivier and Johannes Strauss von Moltke faced other charges which grew out of the Grahamstown trial.

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The result has been widely hailed here as a complete vindication of the Jewish people and of Rabbi Abraham Levy who brought the lawsuit against the Grey Shirt leaders.

As the leader of the SANP, Weichardt was arrested and imprisoned during World War II at Koffiefontein detention barracks by the Smuts’ government as an ‘enemy of the state’ – along with all the other far right pro Nazi Germany, anti-British militants and held there for the duration of the war.

Weichardt disbanded his Nazi party in 1948 and closely worked with Oswald Pirow’s ‘New Order’ (another South African neo Nazi anti-communist movement). Moving on, Weichardt then gave his full attention and allegiance to D.F. Malan and the National Party (NP) itself. He had a very successful political career with the NP and went on to become the National Party’s senator from Natal Province from 1956 to 1970.

By the early 1950’s the South African National Party government was littered with men, who, prior to the war where strongly sympathetic to the Nazi cause and had actually declared themselves full-blown National Socialists along Nazi political doctrine lines: Oswald Pirow, B.J. Vorster (a future President of South Africa), Hendrik van den Bergh, Johannes von Moltke and Louis Weichardt to name a few, and there is no doubt that their brand of far right politics, known collectively as Christian Nationalism (a form of Nazism) was influencing the National Party’s government policy.

image.thumb.jpg.781092f53561360b127da1709642666eBy the early to mid 1950’s, this state of affairs led to open Anti-Apartheid protests from the South African military veterans community returning from WW2 (see The Torch Commando led South Africa’s first mass anti-apartheid protests, NOT the ANC!– in their tens of thousands, and it also ultimately led to the marginalisation of South African World War 2 veterans and their veteran associations by the ruling party (see The Torch’s impact on the South African military veteran diaspora!).

The folding in of the three key National Socialist organisations, including the SANP, into the National Party’s political sphere would have a resounding impact on the future of not only the majority of ‘Black’ South Africans (who were viewed as ‘Inferior’ peoples by these hard liners), but also minority white ethnic groups like South Africa’s very large Jewish community.  The arrogance of this underpinning politics is seen with Louis Weichardt himself, who, on becoming an elected National Party Parliamentarian quickly covered up his dubious history as a full blown card carrying Nazi, and rather infamously declared that he had never been against the ‘Jewish race’ but only against the actions of certain ‘Jewish communists’. Not a single Jew, in his ‘opinion’ had suffered through his actions.

Researched and written by Peter Dickens.  References Wikipedia, “Not for ourselves” – a history of the SA Legion by Arthur Blake, “Echoes of David Irving – The Greyshirt Trial of 1934” by David M. Scher. The Rise of the South African Reich by Brian Bunting. Our thanks and acknowledgements to Ulrich Duebe, the current owner of the collection as illustrated.

HMS Vanguard brings the Royals to SA, 1947

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A different time in South Africa.  Flagship, pomp and white carriages.

This is the first British Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947 by King George VI the then 21 year old Princess Elizabeth (the current Queen).

Here is HMS Vanguard that brought the Royals to Cape Town and it forms a majestic backdrop to the immaculate White train that was used for the tour through the Union of South Africa.

The Royal visit was intended to boost the relationship with South Africa after the Second World War, certainly in celebration of the British and South African successes supporting the crown in the fight against a Nazi Europe during WW2, which ended just two years earlier.  It was also intended to consolidate the Union government of Jan Smuts ahead of the 1948 elections the following year and support his campaign.

Although the Royal tour was an unprecedented success, with large scale public displays of loyalty to the crown wherever they went it did not prevent the National Party narrowly beating Jan Smut’s United Party in the 1948 elections.

The National Party were no fans of British royalty (a legacy carried over by the Boer War) and South Africa’s relationship with the British Crown and the Commonwealth of Nations was to be severed in the future years, only to be re-established again in 1994.

Queen Elizabeth was not to visit South Africa again until 1995 after the country’s re-admittance to the Commonwealth of Nations.

Border Ops to Soap Opera

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The Border War also saw some pretty famous future personalities and this is one for all the EastEnders fans (the famous on going British soap opera), this fun photo is Alex Ferns during his stint in the South African Army on the Angolan border – Alex is best known for his EastEnders role as Trevor Morgan, “Britain’s most-hated soap villain”.

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Alex was a 2 Special Service Battalion (SSB) Gunner in 1989 and affectionately regarded by his fellow brothers in arms as “hell raiser of epic proportions” he was their units “go to guy” during heavy physical training exercises and he used to sing his heart out and always lifted the spirits of the men around him. They had many an ‘oppie’ (a ‘beasting’ or Punishment PT’) together and many a dust up with other units. Because Scotland is his country of birth they regarded him as the ” mad Scotsman” often rousing his buddies to the call. Highly likeable, inspirational and great bloke to all who knew him.

We wish him the best of luck in his television career that has vaulted him to the dizzy heights of a true ‘soap star’ and British cultural icon.

Alex Ferns’ Bio

Alex Ferns also made an appearance in The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) before various television roles, including Trevor Morgan in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2000 to 2002. In 2005, Ferns played Lieutenant Gordon in the highly acclaimed trilingual film Joyeux Noël, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Golden Globe Awards and the BAFTAs.

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Trevor and Mo, in the domestic abuse storyline for EastEnders, Alex Ferns as hard-man and abuser with Kacey Ainsworth

In 2003 Ferns appeared as Draco Malfoy in a Harry Potter sketch for Comic Relief.

In 2004 he played Commander Martin Brooke, the lead role, in the short-lived ITV series Making Waves. In the same year he appeared in Man Dancin’, a Festival Film & TV production, which won a number of awards on the festival circuit, including Outstanding Original Screenplay at the Sacramento Film Festival. He has also appeared on Coronation Street.

He has also appeared in the 2006 movie Shadow Man, as Schmitt, also starring Steven Seagal.

His theatrical work includes the role of the “tapeworm” (a hallucination) in I.D., a play about Dimitri Tsafendas and his assassination of South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the 2008 national tour of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery And Then There Were None, and Little Shop of Horrors as the Dentist. In 2011 he took the role of Scottish gangster Jimmy Boyle in the play about his life, The Hardman, during a Scottish tour to positive reviews.

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Recent photograph of Alex Ferns with a possible comeback to EastEnders

He also made a brief appearance in the Smirnoff Vodka advert in 2009. Ferns took part in TV series Celebrity Coach Trip, partnered with friend Ricky Groves. He starred as Luther in the 2011 London revival and subsequent UK tour of South Pacific. In 2013, he starred as Lee in True West at Glasgow’s Citizen’s Theatre. In 2014, he starred in 24: Live Another Day.

Born in Lennoxtown, Scotland, Alex lived in South Africa for 17 years and studied drama at the University of Cape Town before returning to the United Kingdom in 1991.  Whilst in South Africa the military conscription regulations were changed to include ‘white’ foreign nationals with South African residencies, and Alex was conscripted into the South African Defence Force as a ‘National Serviceman’ or he would certainly have faced deportation and even imprisonment.

Alex Ferns has been married to South African-born actress Jennifer Woodburne since 1996. They currently live in London with their two sons, Cameron and Mackenzie.

To see Alex’s skill transforming from ‘nice guy’ to ‘hard-man’ in EastEnders, have a cuppa tea (as EastEnders fans do) and take a look at this famous clip from the series;

 

Related work and link

Sid James from ‘Carry On’ series; ‘Carry On’ the South African Army – the story of Sid James

Researched by Peter Dickens.

Photo courtesy of BJ Taylor and story on Alex in the SADF courtesy of Gary Smith. Video clip BBC EastEnders.  Feature image Alex Ferns in True West Rehearsals Photo: Tim Morozzo

 

Ineffective Bush War propaganda reinforces the “Communist Plot”

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Bush War era propaganda leaflet distributed by FAPLA – The People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA or Forças Armadas Populares de Libertação de Angola) and its communist backers – Cuba and the USSR.

The purpose of this type of propaganda was to sow dissent in the South African Defence Force ranks and urge desertion – however there is no evidence of this actually working – notwithstanding the high discipline and motivation of SADF troops – but also for the most part SADF troops treated such propaganda with amusement. In fact it served to reinforce the held ideal that they were involved in a true “cold” war conflict against communism.

To put it in context – at the time there was no diplomatic interface between the capitalist ‘West’ and the Soviet Union and Cuba – not even a telephone call between the Western superpowers and the Kremlin. So the threat of communist ideals in Africa and the socialist nationalisation of private property was a very real one. The western world in the mid 1980’s stood against a real threat of “World war 3”, and the campaign was been played out in regional conflicts all over Africa, South America and the Middle East.

FAPLA was originally the armed wing of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a  party with communist leanings which was backed financially and militarily by the Soviet Union and Cuba.  There was no way the average SADF trooper would see it as anything other than yet another Communist “plot”.