大象传媒

1.Introduction

This is the story of some of the experiences of a Sapper during 1940 to 1945. It attempts to describe the sort of life we lived during those days as remembered by one Sapper. No doubt there are many others who can tell quite a different story and who experienced very different lives and it is hoped it may induce others who have not yet given their stories to follow suit as this is what we veterans owe to our successors in the Sappers Association.

With the passing of time memories are not as clear-cut as they might be, and in particular the names of people have tended to fade as has the true sequence of events. Many things happened which are not recorded here as they have not come to mind, nor have all those events, which should be recorded. However it is hoped that this story will be of some interest to the later day Sappers who have more sophisticated equipment in carrying out the duties of a Sapper in the field.

2.Enlistment and Training

In 1940, the 14th June to be precise, which was only days after war was declared between South Africa and Italy, I joined up and became a Sapper, Army number 189654, in the South African Engineering Corps.

We arrived at Sonderwater Camp in the late afternoon and were immediately led off to the Quartermasters Stores where we were issued with our kit, needless to say all in sizes that did not match our own! We were then led stumbling in the dark loaded down with all our kit through an area where Sappers had been carrying out training in digging trenches (shades of World War 1) to a temporary tented area and shown in batches of the magical number of 21 to our respective tents. The reason for the 21 batching soon became apparent when we discovered that a bell tent is made up of 22 segments so that the maximum number that could be accommodated was 21 with the extra segment the door. Sleeping 21 to a bell tent is an art and necessitates sleeping with feet to the central pole, and it can be imagined what a restful night 21 feet bunched around a central tent pole provides!! That June at Sonderwater was bitterly cold and on our first morning we noticed that there was a stream of men making their way to the kitchens with their mug in hand we decided that early morning coffee was on and wasted no time in joining the queue to discover to our disgust they were in fact begging hot water to unfreeze their false teeth!!

June to mid September were spent in being made into soldiers, or rather the Sapper version drilling on the parade ground seemed to be the main idea and it did not take long for our new army boots to become part of ourselves as hour after hour we marched backwards and forwards and in between we learn how to handle a pick and shovel and also a rifle, though there was little rifle range activity. I cannot remember if we were taught any military engineering though do recollect we went to the newly developed Engineers camp at Spitskop, just north of Bronkhorstspruit, ostensibly to do bridge construction. The main thing I do remember about Spitskop was the extreme cold. We slept in the open on groundsheets and woke in the mornings with ice on our blankets from our breath. Of course at that time the camp was considered a "rough" camp with not even hot showers and that after a full day labouring on bridging over a very cold river!! However we survived.

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