Yesterday I went through to Springbok to perform a few tasks. Whilst sitting in the historically animated Springbok Cafe, having a nice brunch, I spotted from a distance, what appeared to be a photograph of a tank on the back of an old lorry.
Thinking to myself that the picture looked slightly out of place squashed in between all the copper relevant photographs of the surrounding area, I got up and approached the image. "Those tanks look like our tanks in Oranjemund!", I thought to myself....
Lo and behold, lightly scribbled at the bottom of the photograph I could make out the words Tank and Oranjemund... Wow! a piece of Oranjemund history on a wall in a cafe in the Namaqualand capital of Springbok. I wondered to myself how many tourist types had looked at the photograph and wondered what the hell tanks were doing heading for the diamond fields all those years ago....
Obviously it was Jowells doing the delivery
what a surprise Mike. nice history - thanks a million for sharing your find with us . Can you perhaps read the owner's name on the door of the lorry ? - or the full discriptin underneath the photo . I am unable to decipher it . And .. Mike Voden - Won' t you come to the rescue ? and tell me what it reads ? I mislaid my clicks glasses ,
Clicks glasses Hennie....???, I thought yours were Spec Savers..............!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry Hennie, I can't read it either. You'll have to make a trip to Springbok to have a look for yourself.
Mike Voden .. you wont believe it - I buy " All in one " flea drops" the equivalent of the old " Blou Blixem " from them . that is spec savers - for my dog. they keep it in the back - and one need to ask for it . Of course one must mention that it is for the dog . and not for oneself or spouce .
Aw come on Mike if you tried hard enough you could actually see the truck.........
Obviously it was Jowells doing the delivery?
So would it be presumptuous to assume that it was Jowells transporting the goods 'Tank' I remember when we lef
Oranjemund Jowells picked up our stuff and took it down to Port Nolloth, and from there shipped it down to Cape Town. Remember the tanks as well they were lined up to the right hand side of the fitters shop thinking at the time were did these come from, they were used for their armored plating much of that was on hoppers 'etc' Sherman Tanks I recall.
Also watched a program last night on ABC iview 'Wonders Of Our Solar System The Thin Blue Line presented by Professor Brian Cox' great program the reason I mentioned this was that he was up there in the Namibian sand dunes explaining that this would be how it would look like on the surface of Mars and wondered if he stopped at that Springbok cafe and noticed the picture.............. ThatStinks2
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Brian_Cox.jpg/200px-Brian_Cox.jpg)
BBC Two - Wonders of the Solar System, Original Series
www.bbc.co.uk (http://www.bbc.co.uk) › Factual › Science & NatureShareInterplanetary adventure featuring physicist Professor Brian Cox, made in conjunction with Wonders of the Solar System. In space hoppers, intrepid travellers ...
what I can mak from the faint writing is : USA SHERMAN TANKS FOR ORANJEMUND. ?????? . driver C Burger & oom Piet Trichard
As luck would have it, I have just received the following photograph from ex Oranjemunder , Robin Rees now residing in Australia.
Tank story . I heard from uncle Frans Schneider . The Oranjemund rugby team was to play against Keetmans . Their makeshift lorrie that served as a bus broke down not far from Kolmans. The repairs took so long that the trip had to be cancelled. The GM at the time was Piet Lourens. He then gave orders that the tank driver and diesel mech must get a tank at Kolmans workshops , and bring a trailer with dragline spares back to O Mund. But the two of them decided that one needs all the strengh one could get for such a task , so the set off to Luderitz with the Sherman , damaging the streets as far as they went . They hardly got their cans of wine at the Europa Hof Hotel , before the police showed up - so the two of them fled the scene . Having a tank top their disposal , they could just drive off into the sperrgebiet . At Kolmans they got the wagon and dragline spares . during the trip they Fueled themselves regularly with wine. Driving hard through the night , they arrived the next day in O Mund , but without the wagon or the spares. GM Piet was furious , and dispite their babbalas , he sent them with a lorry to go and search for the missing spares. And then it was discovered that they veered off the road into the desert , going over dongas and hills , and that is how they lost their cargo , not all in one place though , but strewn litlle by little over quite a distance .
:emot112_2: Nice one Hennie! Thanks
I recall somewhere reading about some bloke driving a tank to Caseys back in the day!
since the topic of wine came up - here is a Wine story. A artisan at the old central fields w/s really loved his Paarl Perle wine . One morning he was very grumpy and upset . The reason being that his wife would not give him his daily allowance of R10 for his packet of smokes and a box Paarl wine . On that particular morning I had to go to central fields and then unintentionally became part of prank on Mr Paarl. There was a phone at the far end of the workshop for the artisans use and one in each of the foremans ofices . The forman and others decided that I should phone the man from the office phone , And since I am not part of Central Fields staff , Mr Paarl Perle would not recognise my voice . So I had to tell him the following : - " Hi I am mr X from Gilby winery , and since we learned about your loyal support for our product , It has been decided to send a case of Paarl Perle wine to your local bottle store , and our rep will deliver it at your house this afternoon ." Immediately after the conversation , he phoned home to tell his wife that she can shove the R10 up her backside and slammed the phone down . That afternoon hy was noticed standing at his front gate – neatly dressed in his flannels , collar and tie - and club blazer . Waiting on the delivery from the bottle store [ he lived just down the street from the bioscope ]
Nice one Hennie, I could visualize it..... Have a Karma point for a memory!
allgood
Not sure , but I think the tank transporters were " JOY " lorries , most probably Jowells vehicles
I recently scanned through my late fathers magazines , and see what I found. Farther mentioned that he would have liked it very much tor replace his oxen with a tank - tractor , but he will leave that to the mining company on the west coast to buy them - as he would not be able to pay the fuel bill !