u/IlikeGeekyHistoryRSA

Source : https://sahistory.org.za/archive/report-commission-enquiry-riots-durban

On 4 May 1945, Milch was apprehended by the British No. 6 Commando on the Baltic Sea coast and taken to the unit's command post of Brigadier Derek Mills-Roberts in Neustadt in Holstein, a man who was known to have a short temper. When Milch arrived, Mills-Roberts was said to be still seething from the suffering and atrocities he had seen during the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Milch reportedly addressed Mills-Roberts in a haughty manner, demanding good treatment, waving his *Generalfeldmarschall'*s campaign baton around, and dismissing concerns about the inmates of several satellite Arbeitslager of Neuengamme concentration camp in the area. Mills-Roberts became so incensed with Milch's tone, the British officer snatched the field-marshal's baton from him and began beating Milch over the head with it until it broke. He then grabbed a champagne bottle and continued, fracturing Milch's skull. The bloodied field-marshal was then pulled up from the floor and driven back to Sierhagen Castlewhere he had been staying, and robbed at gunpoint by British soldiers (which included his ceremonial jewel-encrusted Generalfeldmarschall baton). He was then sent to a holding camp for Nazi prisoners at Lüneburg near the field HQ of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
A few days later Mills-Roberts went to the British HQ and, upon entering the commander's tent, Montgomery is said to have covered his head with his hands, quipping "I hear you've got a thing about Field Marshals". Mills-Roberts apologised for his actions but no further action was taken against him.

EDIT: I meant “epitomizes” in the title ffs lol

For those who didn’t see my last post, I recently got a book which covers the rugby that the 6th South African Armoured Division got up to during WW2. In the book, it mentions “The Book”.

“The Book” was originally an 8 paged booklet made by the South Africans as a program souvenir for their matches against the New Zealanders and Italians, but it soon evolved into a fierce tome of law, where the joke was that the losers of this historic matchup had to metaphorically take a page out of the winners’ book. I will now quote Lt Oxlee of the Natal Carabineers.

“I don't know where the notion began, and I have still less idea where it might end, but one thing is certain - whenever Kiwis and Springboks meet, there will always be talk of The Book.
It is something born of the sincere and deep friendship which exists between two rugby-loving people who, for the first time in history, have been brought together en masse. The spirit previously apparent among merely one small group of men in black and another in green and gold which we have, in the past, been privileged to see only from afar has prevailed and spread among thousands. Its increased quantity has not dulled its quality, but rather has brightened it, so that the present friendship between New Zealanders and South Africans may rightly be regarded as one of the phenomenal outcomes of a war itself filled with amazement. This friendship, with a love of rugby as its common basis began some years ago when troops from the two countries met in the Middle East. It prospered, and flourished with increased vigour when we renewed contact at Cassino last year. It has manifested itself in a host of ways. Whenever Kiwis and Springboks meet there is the talk - almost a formal greeting now of "a scrum", and many have been the clubs in Egypt and Italy (and 1 know of at least one in Paris) that have witnessed men, grunting and groaning, bend down and attempt to push one another off the earth with all the earnestness of life and death. And many are the Egyptians and Italians who have been amazed and dumbfounded to see, when it is all over, these "enemies" arise smiling and, laughing, shake hands, then wander off arm in arm to seek the nearest drink. To-day this is the spirit epitomised by The Book. Where the legend of The Book began, I do not know, it sprang up somewhere between Cassino and the Alps.
A South African Artillery Regiment claims to be its original author.
In July this year, they say, the 7-23 Medium Regiment played the Amatori Rugby Club in Milan. The Amatori, reduced by the war to eight players, were nevertheless keen to awake an interest in rugby among Italians. They borrowed seven players from the Gunners and staged a game at the Stadium in Milan immediately after an important athletics meeting. Rugby was a mystery far beyond the understanding of the masses, and they persuaded a South African to explain in simple language what the game was all about. This they then translated into Italian and distributed the explanation in pamphlet form among the onlookers, among whom were several Kiwis. Here was The Book - written in Italian. At last, they whooped, there is hope that the South Africans will learn to play rugby. But what a pity, they jeered, that they had to learn from the Italians. And the Amatori were amazed at the amount of support they had from the stand. That night, the Gunners' story goes on, in the pub at Corner House, the South African Rest Camp in Milan, usually referred to as "Kiwi Corner" - copies of The Book were prominently displayed. With the passing of time and the flow of beer, the atmosphere grew more and more friendly and the remarks about The Book correspondingly more offensive. It was apparent that The Book would not be forgotten from then on. Today, The Book has developed into an imaginary volume containing the rules of the game which each side recommends to the other for intensive study. It will never be forgotten. When, in years to come, the teams of the two countries meet, there will always be talk of this nebulous tome. For Already it has taken its place among the legends of rugby. Perhaps one day there will be a real Book. Its reality then will be no more real than the spirit which originally conceived it. And perhaps it will be a large volume, bound in rich leather and embossed with gold, containing parchment leaves that have, as an introduction, the rules of the game suitably penned and illuminated, and which will have space on its subsequent leaves for the signatures of all the Springbok and All Black players who have met together in test matches through the years. It will be a fine record for history and a worthy trophy for competition, carrying - as it must - the spirit of friendship generated on grimmer fields. And if there should ever be such a trophy - which may become as famous as The Ashes - it would be only right and proper, of course, that its holders should be, not the winners, but the losers of the previous test series. After all, their need for its study is the more important."

See you soon, you kiwi bastards ;)

On 23 January 1939, Taillard was ordered to go to South West Africa to investigate Nazi activities there (the SWA Nazi party was outlawed in February 1934). Sergeant J. A. B. ‘Tockoe’ van Wyk was also there, on a similar mission. Van Wyk, who spoke only passable German, played the role of the “obvious spy” and sent easily intercepted reports to the Commissioner of Police in the Union. While Van Wyk attracted all the attention, Jan Taillard was sent to South-West Africa by road, in a battered old car, in the guise of a farmer disaffected with the Smuts government’s policies and exploring the possibility of moving to SWA. He gained the confidence of a pro-Nazi doctor, who gave him an introduction to a senior member of the Nazi Party in SWA, Hans Denk. Denk invited Taillard to a party on his farm outside Windhoek, where in the dead of night Taillard made off with the entire party membership card index.

Taillard and Van Wyk’s work, corroborated in April by SWA police Major HC ‘Manie’ du Preez and Detective-Sergeant Botha, led to Lieutenant-Colonel ‘Frank’ Verster, with 10 officers and 315 policemen, entering Windhoek by special train in the early morning of 20th April – **Hitler’s birthday** – and arresting the 2 284 Nazi party members listed in Taillard’s purloined index.

Taillard presumably returned to rural policing at Queenstown, but later in 1939 or early in 1940 he was apparently posted to Pretoria and went on an unknown mission to SWA. At the end of October 1940, Louis Esselen asked him to resign from the police. In a reprise of 1939, Taillard, claiming to have left the force in disgust over the policies of the Smuts government, went undercover as a farmer in the Brits district, and began to cultivate relationships with members of anti-government organisations such as the Ossewabrandwag. He was paid out of secret funds and reported to Esselen though Ewald, on the neighbouring farm at De Wildt.

It was at Brits that he made a set of relationships that would lead him into contact with Robey Leibbrandt. Leibbrandt, a South African Olympic boxer turned Abwehr agent and saboteur, had been landed on the Namaqualand coast in July 1941 with a powerful radio transmitter, a small fortune in US dollars and timers and fuses. He had clashed with the leader of the Ossewabrandwag, JFJ ‘Hans’ van Rensburg, and formed his own National Socialist Rebels group, soon joined by renowned wrestler Johannes van der Walt. There was a nation-wide manhunt underway for Leibbrandt, who by then was claiming he would assassinate Smuts.

Taillard patiently worked though his contacts until he found – and was introduced to –Leibbrandt. He gained Leibbrandt’s confidence and led him into a police ambush at the Wierda Bridge over Sesmylspruit outside Pretoria on 24 December 1941. Taillard was mistaken for Leibbrandt and knocked unconscious with a gun barrel, requiring 18 stitches. After a marathon preparatory hearing and treason trial, Leibbrandt was sentenced to death on 11 March 1943. Jan Smuts commuted this sentence to life in December 1943.

Having made an enemy of the pro-Nazi National Party (who’d win the 1948 election despite losing the popular vote), Taillard was denied a pension, and a Colonel Jan Taillard died in a shelter for indigent pensioners on 27 June 1987. There were no police representatives at his funeral. He had not received a single award or commendation.

Source : https://www.nongqai.org/nongqai-vol-17-no-7-capt-jan-taillard-sa-police/

On 23 January 1939, Taillard was ordered to go to South West Africa to investigate Nazi activities there (the SWA Nazi party was outlawed in February 1934). Sergeant J. A. B. ‘Tockoe’ van Wyk was also there, on a similar mission. Van Wyk, who spoke only passable German, played the role of the “obvious spy” and sent easily intercepted reports to the Commissioner of Police in the Union. While Van Wyk attracted all the attention, Jan Taillard was sent to South-West Africa by road, in a battered old car, in the guise of a farmer disaffected with the Smuts government’s policies and exploring the possibility of moving to SWA. He gained the confidence of a pro-Nazi doctor, who gave him an introduction to a senior member of the Nazi Party in SWA, Hans Denk. Denk invited Taillard to a party on his farm outside Windhoek, where in the dead of night Taillard made off with the entire party membership card index.

Taillard and Van Wyk’s work, corroborated in April by SWA police Major HC ‘Manie’ du Preez and Detective-Sergeant Botha, led to Lieutenant-Colonel ‘Frank’ Verster, with 10 officers and 315 policemen, entering Windhoek by special train in the early morning of 20th April – Hitler’s birthday – and arresting the 2 284 Nazi party members listed in Taillard’s purloined index.

Taillard presumably returned to rural policing at Queenstown, but later in 1939 or early in 1940 he was apparently posted to Pretoria and went on an unknown mission to SWA. At the end of October 1940, Louis Esselen asked him to resign from the police. In a reprise of 1939, Taillard, claiming to have left the force in disgust over the policies of the Smuts government, went undercover as a farmer in the Brits district, and began to cultivate relationships with members of anti-government organisations such as the Ossewabrandwag. He was paid out of secret funds and reported to Esselen though Ewald, on the neighbouring farm at De Wildt.

It was at Brits that he made a set of relationships that would lead him into contact with Robey Leibbrandt. Leibbrandt, a South African Olympic boxer turned Abwehr agent and saboteur, had been landed on the Namaqualand coast in July 1941 with a powerful radio transmitter, a small fortune in US dollars and timers and fuses. He had clashed with the leader of the Ossewabrandwag, JFJ ‘Hans’ van Rensburg, and formed his own National Socialist Rebels group, soon joined by renowned wrestler Johannes van der Walt. There was a nation-wide manhunt underway for Leibbrandt, who by then was claiming he would assassinate Smuts.

Taillard patiently worked though his contacts until he found – and was introduced to –Leibbrandt. He gained Leibbrandt’s confidence and led him into a police ambush at the Wierda Bridge over Sesmylspruit outside Pretoria on 24 December 1941. Taillard was mistaken for Leibbrandt and knocked unconscious with a gun barrel, requiring 18 stitches. After a marathon preparatory hearing and treason trial, Leibbrandt was sentenced to death on 11 March 1943. Jan Smuts commuted this sentence to life in December 1943.

Having made an enemy of the pro-Nazi National Party (who’d win the 1948 election despite losing the popular vote), Taillard was denied a pension, and a Colonel Jan Taillard died in a shelter for indigent pensioners on 27 June 1987. There were no police representatives at his funeral. He had not received a single award or commendation.

Source : https://www.nongqai.org/nongqai-vol-17-no-7-capt-jan-taillard-sa-police/