RE: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Five Afrika Korps graves in Cape Town.

. The death of the five German soldiers Mr Khne refers to in his letter published in Journal Vol. 15, No. 3, would have been bizarre had their unnatural deaths not taken place under such tragic circumstances. The five were part of a contingent of PoWs transported on the Cape Town Castle from North Africa to Canada, which lay at anchor in False Bay, off Simons Town. This was in May 1942. They were members of Field-Marshal Rommels Deutsches Afrika Korps, captured in North Africa. While at anchor, the five managed to escape and at least four managed to reach the shore alive, but completely exhausted from the long swim and immersion in the cold water. Apparently they were discovered amongst the rocks by a roving patrol of Naval Police (another account states that the alarm was raised when they escaped and that the policemen were waiting for them on the beach, should they make it and set foot on land), where the defenceless escapees were assaulted with rifle butts and/or bayoneted. Two apparently died immediately, or shortly thereafter, while two survived the assault and only subsequently succumbed to their injuries, in early August. A Coloured fisherman by the name of Van Wyk, was eyewitness to this cold-blooded assault. He apparently was illegally fishing in the bay and hiding amongst the rocks against being discovered by the naval provosts. This took place on the 3rd of May, 1942. A local newspaper, the Cape Times, briefly reported that five PoWs escaped. However, on the 8th of May, a local newspaper, Die Burger, reported that the authorities have no knowledge of the successful escape of German PoWs, while in the same paper, on the same day, it was also reported that two German PoWs were buried the previous day in the Woltemade cemetery (on the 7th of May)! On the 9th of May Die Burger carried a short report on the death of what appeared to be a German soldier. He had apparently drowned and was washed ashore at Fish Hoek (township between Simons Town and Muizenberg). It appeared that he was already dead for some time, tied to a rescue buoy and clothed in a military shirt only. Two days later Die Burger reported that another unknown German soldier was also buried in the Woltemade cemetery, on Saturday, 9th of May. All three were buried by the local Lutheran Pastor, by the name of Hoberg. According to the newspaper reports some eighty members of the local German community attended the funeral service on the 7th and about 160 people the funeral held on the 9th. The other two German soldiers died about three months later, ostensibly as a result of their injuries sustained in May. They were buried respectively on the 3rd and 7th of August. Of note is the fact that they both died within a short space of each other. Of these latter burials no trace could be found in any of the local newspapers. Other than the short newspaper reports during May, the whole affair is surrounded by an air of mystery, conjecture, hearsay and suspicions of a cover-up. Apparently the bodies were held in the police mortuary, but no autopsies appeared to have been performed. It also appears that all police reports relating to the incident have been destroyed, possibly during the great record burning by the Smuts government after
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the Nationalist Party victory in 1948. All this added to the mysterious nature of the tragic event. In 1990, the original graves were excavated along with a large number of others, to make way for major road improvements. On the 24th of April 1990 the remains of the five unfortunate young men were re-interred in the Commonwealth War Graves section in separate graves, not far from the original gravesites, where they rest to this day. At the time it was rumoured that the perpetrators of this foul deed were Coloured members of the armed forces. The matter was clarified when Mr van Wyk came forward to disclose his remarkable story of being eyewitness to the event some 45 years before. He also made the disclosure that not only were the perpetrators white, but apparently also spoke Afrikaans! The known facts regarding the five soldiers are that they were: Unteroffizier (NCO) Martin Kraus, from Schiffsweiler, Rhine Province, died 3 May and buried 7 May 1942; Gefreiter (Lance-Cpl) Theo Krcher, from Dsseldorf, died 4 May and buried 7 May 1942; Feldwebel (rank between sergeant and sgt-major) Friedrich Gtze, drowned between 3rd and 6th of May and buried on 9 May 1942; Gefreiter Willi Kalz from Magdeburg, born 5 May 1919 and buried 7 August 1942, and Leutnant (Lieutenant) Gerhard Laug, from Breslau, buried 7 August 1942. Most of the facts relating to the deaths of the German soldiers were relayed to the writer by the late Mr Artur Painczyk who voluntary undertook maintenance of the graves when he became aware of their existence in 1946 upon his return from internment (duration of the war, lasting 6 years). He also organised the annual commemoration and gathering at the gravesides by the local German community on Volkstrauertag (National Day of Mourning), accompanied by wreath-laying by WWII veterans. On rare occasions when German armed forces members visit Cape Town, wreath-laying ceremonies are also arranged through the German Consulate. The tradition of commemoration is carried on even now that the surviving veterans are getting fewer by the year, with only a handful faithfully attending the annual service each November. My infatuation with military history and professional specialisation as a heritage planner led to my interest in the fate of these five men. I have researched known sources and the burial records of the deceased, having been fortunate to work in close conjunction with the cemetery management while still employed as a spatial planner by the responsible local authorities. Johan van den Berg Branch Chairman: SAMHS (Cape Town) Email: warbooks@mweb.co.za