A different view on current affairs & history
A week ago my blog “Landing without an Elevator or Rudder” showcased a South African example of a miraculous escape when an airforce Dakota was almost downed by a Soviet SAM-7 anti-aircraft missile. This week’s example relates to a US Airforce B-17 Bomber which had accidently been rammed by a German fighter over Tunis harbour. To say that their air crews changes of survival were negligible is an understatement. Yet they did.
This is their story.
Main picture: A crippled B-17
With my penchant for history and especially photographs of history, these photographs gripped my imagination. The technique used was rudimentary as it involved manually adding colour to black and white negatives. Foremost amongst the question that I would like to ask, is how long it took to colourise one B&W photo.
Main picture: Bridge and Promenade, Bedford
During those few days, the ultimate fate of England would be sealed. If the Armada of King Phillip II of Spain prevailed over the fleet of Queen Elizabeth I of England, then the future primacy of Spain as a world super power would be indisputable. Apart from Elizabeth’s head & England’s independence but also at stake was the future America as a Spanish colony as would South Africa.
Why were the British able to prevail against a superior force?
Main picture: An engraving of the route of the Armada
The Campanile was erected to commemorate the landing of the 1820 Settlers and is situated at the entrance to the railway station and docks in Strand Street, the spot where it is said the settlers landed in Port Elizabeth. The architects were Jones & McWilliams with construction starting in April 1921 and it was completed in October 1923.
Only 700 000 people among a population of 13 million have formal jobs, less than at independence in 1980. Many of those jobs are in the bloated civil service & military and are clearly unsustainable. Ninety percent of jobs reside in the informal sector, where reliance on diaspora remittances remains crucial. Compounding the problem is that 80% of government revenue is spent on civil services wages; hence no maintenance of any kind but the most rudimentary is possible.
Has the tipping point been reached?
Signs abound everywhere.
Main picture: Farm invasions destroyed agricultural production converting Zimbabwe from an exporter to an importer of agricultural products.
Today’s race at the National Botanical Gardens in Pretoria was no exception. Again I was surprised by what I learned except that it was not from a South African but a foreigner who has been in South Africa for only nine months. One is not accorded a special status in road running. All runners are equal. Unlike the public discourse which is characterised by divisive racism, violent political rhetoric and the politics of rage especially by the EFF, road running does not suffer from these travails.
Main picture: The entrance to the Willows resort in Port Elizabeth. Instead of inserting some arbitrary pictures onto this blog, I have included photographs of Willows Resort near Port Elizabeth because as youngsters we spent many an Easter Holiday there.
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I cannot recall how old I was, but I must have been in High School because I never owned a bike in Primary School. Either that or I had foolishly borrowed somebody else’s bike. In what can only be described as an act of utter insanity – in retrospect – we would race down one side of the Third Avenue Dip in Newton Park, Port Elizabeth as fast as possible and then up the other side. Then one had to take into consideration the factors which bedevilled this race: a narrow winding road, fast cars and road hazards in the form of pot holes, rough patches and bumps all in strategic places. Amazingly none of us was killed or even seriously hurt.
This is the story of this mis-adventure.
Main picture: The Third Avenue Dip in Newton Park which the road submerged due to flooding. The bike races were from the top of the hill near the houses. By the time one “hit” the bridge. one could be doing at least 80 kph.
After losing all their possessions in a great flood of the Gamtoos River in 1906, my paternal grand- parents purchased 3 plots in an isolated hamlet called Schoenmakerskop during July 1918. On erf 17 – what was to become Number 32 Marine Drive – they constructed a wooden restaurant, which in its early years was called “The Hut”. With only a limestone and sand road from Walmer, their customers must have been paltry. Against the odds, luck was on their side. On Wednesday 6th December 1922, Marine Drive was opened. It became a magnet for the rich and well-heeled in Port Elizabeth. Soon The Hut was overflowing with customers and the whole family was pressed into service catering for this demand.
This blog is a pictorial replication of that drive on Sunday 10th December 1922 with contemporary photographs and drawings.
Main Picture: The start of the drive was at the Port Elizabeth Town Hall. One hundred and fifty model T Fords line up to make the journey around the Marine Drive. This is the actual photograph of the vehicles lining up.
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Essentially this feat is akin to driving without a steering wheel. All wars produce incredible stories of people or machines surviving the most horrendous damage. So it was with this South African Air Force Dakota in May 1986. WW2 produced many such examples; the most notable was that of a B17 returning from a bombing mission over Europe. This story originally appeared on the SA Military History website but I would like to share it.
Main picture: A most graphic picture of the Dakota’s non existent rudder and shattered elevators
These 40 photographs span the period from the advent of photography to the 1970s. They provide a glimpse into another world. For me, the most revealing photographs are those of the nineteenth century and the early 1900s. Being almost alien in the 21st century, I find them both enchanting and repulsing in equal measure.
Main picture: a wood-plank prison in Wyoming, 1893