21/03/2023
Stalag-IVB near Mühlberg in southeast Germany, was a harsh prisoner of war camp which at one time held more than 20,000 Allied POW’s.
The camp also held 700 South Africans, most of whom had been captured in North Africa.
Amongst that lot were some good rugby players: eight had played provincial rugby, while most of the others had played club rugby or at least for their school first fifteens.
Fullback Gus Ackermann had been a shoo-in for the Springboks before the war intervened, and team skipper Fiks van der Merwe later captained Northern Transvaal to win the Currie Cup in 1946 and was capped for the Boks against Fred Allen’s touring 1949 All Blacks. He later became a legendary Northern Transvaal coach.
The POWs were housed in huts, and soon the South Africans had organised in inter-hut rugby league, with matches taking place almost daily.
This competition soon progressed to a series of “international” matches, with the South Africans even holding a series of trial matches to find their best team.
Of course, “Springbok” jerseys had to be worn by this team, and soon the South Africans got busy getting these made.
They had received white long-sleeved vests from the Red Cross – these were dyed green by boiling the dye out of the uniforms of Russian and Italian POW’s.
The gold collars, cuffs and hose tops were dyed by dissolving a large amount of anti-malaria pills that were available. The actual dyeing method in both instances is unclear, but fantastically inventive!
Those POW’s that could, then made the cuffs and collars and sewed then to the now green vests.
And of course, a Springbok badge was made, and individually sewn onto each jersey.
They used their standard issue Army boots with the heels removed – the studs were then made from the removed boot heels.
The “Test” matches were played between April and June of 1944, with the “Boks” beating the ANZACS 21-0, the combined British Isles 14-3, Wales 14-3 and the Rest 9-0. They were challenged to another match by the Welsh, and this time they scraped home 3-0, with the winning try fittingly being scored by their skipper, Fiks van fer Merwe.
There are no records of any more matches having been played after this.
Apparently, the POW’s rations had worsened and conditions in the camp were deteriorating. There had been several foiled escape attempts. Several prisoners were shot while trying to climb the barbed-wire fence, while an escape tunnel had also been discovered by the Germans.
And so closed one of the most interesting episodes of South African Rugby – a true example of triumph in adversity and a never-say-die attitude.
Source : Rugby365
Colurised by : https://www.facebook.com/Photos-Redux
Back row, left to right: J Oakley, I Van Huyssteen, Kaplan, Timm, GJ Coetzee, N Hinds, B Wessels, CF Heydenreich, H B Youngleson, AL Foster, EA Chapman, JV Rall.
Middle row: AJ Fabricius, M Moore, G Ackermann, Major Ochse (medical officer), BS ‘Fiks’ van der Merwe (captain), D Katzeff, CA van der Westhuizen, JHB Ritchie, A Hultzer, J Zietsman.
Front row: DJ Marais, R Hinds, EP Sephton.
