Campaign Launched for Black South African WW2 Soldier to Receive Victoria Cross Medal

A British man has launched a petition to allow a black South African hero from World War II to finally – and posthumously – be awarded the prestigious Victoria Cross (VC) he so deserved.  Job Maseko became a war hero when he used a home-made bomb to blow up a Nazi ship. He was nominated by British generals at the time for the VC, Britain’s highest military honour, but was denied it by his SA commanders because of his race.

Instead he was given the lesser Military Medal for his “ingenuity, determination and complete disregard of personal safety” for sinking a German ship in North Africa’s Tobruk harbour in 1942.

Job was initially a stretcher-bearer, before being sent untrained to the frontline in Libya where the Allies took on German General Rommel’s troops. He was captured but instead of giving up, Job found a way to attack at Tobruk.

Job collected gun powder from bullets lying around, a condensed milk can, and a very long fuse… and created a home-made bomb, using some pre-war experience he’d gained as a miner before becoming a delivery man. He then enlisted three fellow prisoners to distract the guards while he sneaked deep into the German ship, and placed the bomb… thus risking his own life.

Speaking to the Somerset Country Gazette, Bill Gillepsie, who is heading up the campaign, said: “He lit the fuse and ran to join his friends on the dock.” They had just finished their work on the ship for the day. It was 21 July 1942.

“Job waited and a few hours later there was an almighty explosion, Apparently, the ship almost sank immediately.

“It was a large vessel and would have resulted in a significant depletion of German equipment destined to oppose Montgomery at El Alamein,”

Bill says: “It is anyone’s guess, but this small act by a very brave man – could well have assisted in the decisive Allied victory by Montgomery’s troops barely three months later.”

Bill said he is starting the petition because “I hate injustice of any sort. I think this incident concerning Job Maseko requires addressing and redressing.”

Job was one of 128,000 ‘Black’ South African soldiers who volunteered to take part in World War II.

According to SA Military History, Job said that as a black Prisoner of War, he felt driven to take action “because of our ill-treatment by the enemy, especially the Italians, and because I felt it a duty in this way to assist my own people”.

Sadly Job died back in Springs in 1952 when he was accidentally hit by a train.

SA Military History says: “He was so broke at the time, he was buried with borrowed money in the Payneville Township Cemetery in Springs.  A very sad way to see the end of a national hero.”

Today Job is honoured with a primary school named after him near Springs, and the road between Springs and KwaThema Township is also named after him. He is honoured at museums in France (Delville Wood) and SA (Military History in Joburg) and the SA ship SAS Kobie Coetzee has been renamed after him.

As soon as we have a link to the petition for Job, a truly brave South African hero, to receive a Victoria Cross medal, we will update this article.