After the Battle of Bardia, Axis forces had reoccupied the port in April 1941 during Operation Sonnenblume. Further fighting occurred from 31 December 1941 – 2 January 1942 during which the 2nd South African Division were tasked to re-capture the port of Bardia.[3] The Durban Light Infantry were to attack the perimeter in the north-west as part of Northforce (Brigade) attack on 16 December 1941.[4] By 3:45pm the battalion attack had been stopped due to heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, but they were instructed to renew the attack again the following morning. The second attack was launched at 11:00 the next morning but was again halted by German 20mm Flak guns employed in direct fire role on the South Africans, with many wounded laying on the battlefield under ongoing fire from both Axis and South African forces.[5]
A volunteer was called for; to go onto the battlefield under a Red-Cross flag and to approach the enemy lines with a letter requesting a temporary truce, to permit both sides to remove their wounded from the battlefield. Berry Gazi, then a corporal, volunteered to go and describes the events as:
"...I proceeded towards the enemy under very heavy enemy fire, shells were bursting around me and bullets were whining over my head. I cannot say what my feelings were at that moment. I somehow felt an inner urge to go forward and perform my task even though I might have been killed. I managed to reach the enemy without being wounded and delivered the message. I returned safely to our lines."[6][7]
Despite him having been wounded in the leg returning from the delivery of the letter, he was instructed to retreat to the rear to the closest field hospital to have his wounds attended to. Gazi showed complete disregard for his personal safety and wellbeing and returned to the battlefield to collect and evacuate wounded. For these actions, he was awarded the Military Medal, becoming the first black South African to have been awarded this decoration.[2]
On 1 January 1942, during battles being fought along the Bardia-Tobruk road, Gazi again displayed great courage by taking forward a party to pick up Durban Light Infantry A-Company wounded. L/Cpl A.G. Girardeau (one of the wounded but who was already deceased) had a grenade with the pin drawn in his hand. As the rescuers tended him, the grenade detonated wounding Gazi and four of the stretcher bearers. Although wounded in four places, Gazi continued working, using a German collapsable boat paddle as a crutch and was only evacuated two days later.[8]
Gazi was profiled on the front page of The World in 1960 in a photograph that depicted him as old and dejected, symbolising the shattered expectations fostered during the short period of racial equality during the Second World War. The caption described Gazi as a "hero of World War II", and declared him to be the first member of the Native Military Corps to have won the Military Medal for bravery during the course of his work as a stretcher-bearer. Ironically, at that time he had been totally forgotten by the country to which he showed allegiance, and was penniless.[2]
↑ The Participation of South African Blacks in the Second World War: Native Military Corps, National Archive NAS 3/21 A1 Box 14: Memorandum titled "Experience of Cpl. Barry Gazi MM" undated.
Orpen, Neil (1971). War in the Desert. South African Forces World War II: Volume III. Cape Town: Purnell. ISBN0360001513.
Related Research Articles
The 1st South African Infantry Division was an infantry division of the army of the Union of South Africa. During World War II the division served in East Africa from 1940 to 1941 and in the Western Desert Campaign from 1941 to 1942. The division was disbanded on 1 January 1943, for conversion into what would become the 6th South African Armoured Division. The division was also briefly active after the war from 1 July 1948 to 1 November 1949.
The South African 2nd Infantry Division was an infantry division of the army of the Union of South Africa during World War II. The division was formed on 23 October 1940 and served in the Western Desert Campaign and was captured by German and Italian forces at Tobruk on 21 June 1942. The remaining brigade was re-allocated to the South African 1st Infantry Division.
Operation Crusader was a military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War by the British Eighth Army against the Axis forces in North Africa commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. The operation was intended to bypass Axis defences on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, defeat the Axis armoured forces and relieve the 1941 Siege of Tobruk.
William Frederick Faulds was a South African soldier, and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the first South African-born man serving with South African Forces to be awarded the VC.
Frederick Birks, VC, MM was a Welsh-born Australian First World War soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth forces.
Walter Richard Parker, VC was a British ironworker, Royal Marine, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
The Solomon Mahlangu Regiment is a reserve infantry regiment of the South African Army.
Freddie Stowers was an African-American corporal in the United States Army who was killed in action during World War I while serving in an American unit under French command. Over 70 years later, he posthumously received the Medal of Honor and Purple Heart for his actions.
Job Maseko was a South African soldier during World War II, serving in the Native Military Corps as part of the South African 2nd Infantry Division. He was one of many Allied troops captured by the Axis in the surrender of the port of Tobruk in 1942. He gained fame by his actions in sinking a German vessel by a milk can whilst serving as a POW stevedore in Tobruk harbour, for which he was awarded the Military Medal.
Bardia, or El Burdi is a Mediterranean seaport in the Butnan District of eastern Libya, located near the border with Egypt. It is also occasionally called Bórdi Slemán.
Ernest Albert Corey, MM & Three Bars was a distinguished Australian soldier who served as a stretcher bearer during the First World War. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 13 January 1916, and was allocated to the 55th Battalion, where he was initially posted to a grenade section before volunteering for stretcher bearing duties. In 1917 he was twice awarded the Military Medal for his devotion to duty in aiding wounded soldiers, and twice again in 1918; becoming the only person to be awarded the Military Medal four times.
During World War II, many South Africans saw military service. The Union of South Africa participated with other British Empire forces in battles in North Africa against Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps, and many South African pilots joined the Royal Air Force and fought against the Axis powers in the European theatre.
Since the establishment of the United States Army in 1775, three regiments have held the designation 28th Infantry Regiment. The first was a provisional unit that was constituted on 29 January 1813 and served during The War of 1812. The second was a reorganization and redesignation of 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment on 1 October 1866 for the American Indian Wars. This incarnation of the 28th Infantry Regiment lasted until 15 March 1869, when it was consolidated back into the 19th Infantry Regiment. The third version of the 28th Infantry Regiment is the one that has the permanent designation and history, and is the one this article is about.
Edward G. Wilkin was a United States Army soldier who was a recipient of the Medal of Honor — the United States military's highest decoration — for his actions fighting in World War II. Working ahead of his unit he engaged German forces single-handedly and then aided another unit in clearing casualties to safety in the face of enemy fire. He was killed a month later.
The Battle of Bardia was fought between 3 and 5 January 1941, as part of Operation Compass, the first British military operation of the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War. It was the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation took part, the first to be commanded by an Australian general and the first to be planned by an Australian staff. The 6th Australian Division assaulted the strongly held Italian fortress of Bardia, Libya, assisted by air support and naval gunfire and under the cover of an artillery barrage. The 16th Australian Infantry Brigade attacked at dawn from the west, where the defences were known to be weak. Sappers blew gaps in the barbed wire with Bangalore torpedoes and filled in and broke down the sides of the anti-tank ditch with picks and shovels. This allowed the infantry and 23 Matilda II tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment to enter the fortress and capture all their objectives, along with 8,000 prisoners.
The 55th Infantry Division "Savona" was an infantry division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. It was formed in April 1939 in Salerno and named after the city of Savona. Its men were drafted from Naples, Salerno and the surrounding Campania. The Savona was classified as an auto-transportable division, meaning staff and equipment could be transported on cars and trucks, although not simultaneously. The division was destroyed on during Operation Crusader at Halfaya Pass and officially declared lost on 17 January 1942.
Jesse Nathaniel Funk was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War I. He earned the medal while serving as a stretcher bearer during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, when he and another soldier, Charles D. Barger, entered no man's land despite heavy fire and rescued two wounded officers.
The Union Defence Force (UDF) comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1 July 1912, when the Defence Act took effect, two years after the creation of the Union of South Africa, until 1957 when it was reorganised and renamed the South African Defence Force.
Edmund Bryant "Nutty" Hazle was a British soldier during the Second World War and was one of only five men awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and bar during the conflict.
Lucas Majozi (1916-1969) was a stretch-bearer during the Second World War, who received a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his bravery during the Second Battle of El Alamein. This being the highest medal received by a black person during that war, Majozi is one of the few soldiers who were recognised.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
South Africa 
