Foreword

The history of the South African Army Technical Service (TSC) is at present being researched and compiled into book form. This abbreviated history is custom compiled to suit a particular need and is in no way intended to replace or influence the book being researched.

Throughout history the tradesman was centre to all civilisations. In medieval times the blacksmith was the person within the village, from making swords, plough shares to pulling teeth. In South Africa it was no different. If the blacksmith trade is analysed and translated into the trades that we have today it will be realised that almost all the trades stemmed from the blacksmith. The blacksmith however has all but disappeared in South Africa today as well as in other parts of the world.

The TSC has been involved in all conflicts where South Africa was involved. During the First World War the repair of ordnance (cannon etc.) was performed by the South African Ordnance Corps. Armourers served with the SA Army in the South West Africa Campaign. After 1939 however, the TSC was a fully fledged Corps of the Union Army and Defence Force. After 1961 the TSC became a Corps of the South African Defence Force.

The bulk of the information given in this document belongs to persons that during the 1970’s saw the need to document the history of the TSC. This document from which the information is drawn is called Hell on Wheels, The History of the TSC by WO1 E.W. Clapham and others. This is to dedicate this document to all the TSC member’s past, present and future.

Pre-1939

In the early years of the Union Defence Force (1925–1926) it is interesting to note the training of technical personnel. In the case of the Artillery Depot and Workshops the Technical personnel were qualified artisans whereas the South African Air Force, with its specialist tasks such as the assembly and maintenance of aircraft, trained their own technical staff.

During the First World War the British were doing the bulk of the technical work in France.  As the war progressed more sophisticated equipment was developed. The repair load that rapidly accumulated as the war developed was of two main equipment categories.  The first consisted of artillery, small arms and associated equipment; the second was mechanical transport (MT). In January of 1915 the Army Ordnance Department handed over heavy MT work to the Army Service Corps. This arrangement continued during the war and considerable use being made by the Army Service Corps of the French civilian garages.

Colonel PG Davies, an Inspector of Ordnance Machinery (I.O.M.), was one of the few I.O.M. that served during World War 1.  He could lay claim to being the first officer to lead a Light Aid Detachment (L.A.D.) in war when he organized a party of artificers and other tradesmen equipped with spare parts and tools, to accompany a division in the field. Conditions during World War 1 had established the need for base workshop organization and the then Major Davies planned and built up the Base Workshop at Le Havre, France. The Base Workshop expanded and from the modest beginning of the first workshop others were established until 1918 when they totalled 73 and employed 10 000 workers. Some of Davies’ methods of repair when something had to be done quickly, would never be legalised in the “List of Changes” (a forerunner of the E.M.E.R.S. or the latter day Technical Orders). Early in the war a number of the old 18-pounder Mk 1 field guns were taken out of commission through the buckling of their tubular trails. The buckling of the tubular trails reached alarming proportions. The Davies solution was to straighten them end then fill the tubes with a mixture of concrete and steel turnings. They never bent again, but what the gunners murmured when limbering-up is not recorded.

Organisation of the TSC 1939

The Nongqai of 1 February 1939 reported the establishment of a school of technical training for the SAAF apprentices, though it did not mention the training of SAOC Armourer Apprentices.

“The School of Technical Training was established at the beginning of 1937 as part of the Aircraft and Artillery Depot Organisation for the purpose of providing adequate facilities for the training of hundreds of apprentices attested in the SA Air Force. The school is divided into two sections, Basic Centre and the Advanced Centre. Apprentices are, in the first instance posted to the Basic Centre and are provided with a sound introduction to basic engineering as applied to aircraft work. For this purpose they have to be made familiar with the following conventional trades:

·              Machine Shop Practice.

·              Sheet metal work and copper smithing.

·              Woodwork.

·              Blacksmithing”.

There was another re-organisation and on 1 October 1937 the Air and Technical Services amalgamated under the control of Col Hoare though a month later Lt Col HC Daniel, MC, AFC took over as Director Air and Technical Services.

Col P de Waal was appointed Director of Coastal Defence on 1 April 1939 and on 1 July of the same year Technical Services was added to his appointment. Air Services was separated from the Technical Branch and Lt Col Daniel remained the Director. Director Coastal and Technical Services were responsible for:

·              Coastal Defence.

·              Technical Services that included the following:

S       Explosives.

S       Artillery Depots.

S       Mechanical Transport.

S       Armoured Fighting Vehicles.

S       Armouries.

Deputy Directors were appointed to assist Col de Waal and on 19 July 1939 Lt Col HT Newman, formerly of Royal Marines was appointed Deputy Director Coastal Defence; Lt Col Schoon was appointed Deputy Director Workshops and Technical Services on 21 July 1939, together with Lt Col KCS Layzell who was appointed Deputy Director Technical Services (Stores). The pattern was forming.

With the war clouds building over Europe as a result of Germany’s determination to invade Poland, the South African Government sent an armed detachment of police into South West Africa in order to forestall a German “Putsch” by local Nazis.

Accompanying this overland convoy of police was a young SAAF (South African Air Force) Motor Mechanic by the name of Melville Kietzman, and to him goes the honour of being the first Motor Mechanic on Light Aid Detachment (LAD) duty. On his return to the Union, he discovered that he was no longer in the Air Force but in his absence had been transferred to the newly formed Technical Services Corps (TSC).

“Kietzman had joined the SSB in 1935 and in 1936 attested as an apprentice Motor Mechanic in the SAAF. He volunteered as a Full Time Volunteer after the outbreak of the war and in June 1940 was posted to the LAD of 1 SA Light Tank Company in East Africa. This unit was one of the first South African units to cross the lava belt, and this played havoc on vehicles that smashed springs, axles, tie rod ends, damaging clutches and overheating vehicles. The first battle joined by the South Africans was at El Wak on 16 December 1940, and Mellie Kietzman was right in there with the light tanks.

He served in several actions against the Italians in Somali land, Abyssinia and Eritrea. During December 1941 he returned to South Africa and was posted to 10 Motorised Brigade Workshop, remaining with them until his posting to 29-Armoured Brigade Workshop of the 6th SA Armoured Division.  He crossed the Mediterranean in April 1944 and served in Italy with his unit until the end of hostilities in Europe, after which he was posted to the 6th SA Armoured Division Equipment Park in Genoa. He returned home in December 1946 and after a period of leave was sent to 28-Armoured Brigade Workshop in Potchefstroom.

During 1950 and 1951 he was sent to a REME workshop in the Suez Canal area and remained there for seven months, undergoing intensive training on the new Centurion Main Battle Tanks. In January 1953, as a Staff Sergeant, he was posted to TSC Training Depot, and there he remained until his posting, as a Warrant Officer Class 1 to DTS as Assistant Technical, B- Vehicles in January 1960”.

On Wednesday 6 September 1939 General JC Smuts, the new Prime Minister, declared that South Africa was at war with Germany.

Two days later, the Adjutant- General Col BF Armstrong signed a letter transferring 2 Lt AE Quarmby and seventy Armourers and Armourer Apprentices from the SAOC to a new formation, the Technical Services Corps.

A Mr. Reindorp who was Principal of the Pretoria Technical College, and a man who was obviously very well informed on the subject, told the Prime Minister that in spite of the fact that it had been realised three years earlier that the position in the technical organisation of the UDF was dangerous, the situation was still “most deplorable”. There was no continuation phase to round off basic training, finance for buildings and accommodation was inadequate, and it was difficult to get money to buy additional machinery. It would be impossible to service and maintain the masses of military equipment expected shortly, and after interviewing Reindorp himself, General Smuts felt the position to be worse than deplorable.

This sorry state of affairs in 1939 was merely symptomatic of an almost total inadequacy in preparations for war in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth. Fortunately for South Africa the war was raging in Poland and breathing space was allowed through circumstances beyond our control.

Quoted below is an extract from the Government Gazette of 10 November 1939 that authorised the formation of units and forces in this time of breathing space allowed by the war in Poland:

PROCLAMATIONS

BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR PATRICK DUNCAN, A MEMBER OF HIS MAJESTY’S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ORDER OF SAINT MICHAEL AND SAINT GEORGE, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY’S COUNCIL LEARNED IN THE LAW, DOCTOR OF LAWS, GOVERNOR- GENERAL OF THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

No. 276, 1939

FORMATION OF NEW UNITS AND ALTERATION OF THE STYLE AND DESIGNATION OF CERTAIN UNITS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN PERMANENT FORCE.

WHEREAS it is advisable to form new units and to alter the style and designation of certain units of the South African Permanent Force.

NOW THEREFORE, under and by virtue of the powers in me vested by the provisions of sub-sections (3) and (4) of section one of the South African Defence Act Amendment Act, 1922, I do hereby proclaim and make known that as and from the date of promulgation of this proclamation the South African Permanent Force shall include the following units: -

South African Staff Corps.

South African Artillery.

South African Air Force.

Instructional Corps.

Special Service Brigade.

Pioneer Battalion.

South African Naval Service.

Seaward Defence Force.

“T” Service Corps.

South African Medical Corps.

South African Veterinary Corps.

“Q” Service Corps.

Military Police Corps.

Proclamation of No. 17 of 1923 and all subsequent proclamations issued under and by virtue of the provisions of sub-sections (3) and (4) of section one of the South African Defence Act Amendment Act, 1922 are hereby amended in so far as they are in conflict with this proclamation regarding the establishment and designation of the various units of the South African Permanent Force.

GOD SAVE THE KING

Given under my Hand and the Great seal of the Union of South Africa at Pretoria this second day of November One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty Nine.

PATRICK DUNCAN

GOVERNOR GENERAL

By Command of his Excellency the Governor- General–in–Council

J.C. SMUTS.

So, with the publication of the Governor–General’s Proclamation in the Government Gazette of 10 November 1939, the Technical Service Corps was officially created, and it arose from an amalgamation in part from the disbanded SAOC (Stores Depots, Magazines and Central Armoury) and of certain activities undertaken by the SAAF at the Aircraft and Artillery Depots at Voortrekkerhoogte and Cape Town.

Brig Gen. FRG Hoare was recalled from retirement and on 15 September 1939 was appointed Director General of Technical Services, and heads of sections, Deputy Directors Technical Service, Lt Col Layzell (Equipment); Lt Col Schoon (Workshops); Lt Col PC Miller (Director Technical Development); Maj. CD Trollip (Staff Officer Administration) and on 1 November major CG Trevett, OBE, was appointed the Director Mechanical Transport.

It is interesting to note that two junior officers were posted in at the same time as Brig. Gen. Hoare, namely Lieutenants SA “Syp” Engelbrecht and JH “Pine” Pienaar. Lt Engelbrecht attained to the rank of Combat General, held the post of Army Chief of Staff and was awarded the Southern Cross medal, while Lt Pienaar later became Colonel GS Technical (a former title of Director Technical Services), followed by promotion to Brigadier and appointed as the first Director of Army Stores. He was awarded the Medal of the British Empire for his outstanding work in the explosives field during the war. Both these officers were transferred from the SAOC and immediately promoted to the rank of captain.

The transfer of the Motor Transport Repair Section from the A & A Depot at Voortrekkerhoogte resulted in the formation of the base Motor Transport Workshop at Premier Mine in January 1940 under command of Major Horace F Harper.

At this stage the Artillery Workshops had also been transferred from the A & A Depot under the command of Lt FCH van Noordt and were established at Premier Mine. With van Noordt at Voortrekkerhoogte was a young Lt H McQueen who later was appointed as Chairman of the UDF Artisan Board with the rank of Lt Col, though this was not until February 1943. There was massive potential in all these untried young men and in the crucible of war this potential came to the fore. The Artillery Workshops were designated 66 Base General Workshops and van Noordt were promoted to Captain. Motor mechanics, Spray-painters and Sign writers, and an experimental section were all established as 61 Base General Workshop.

About the middle of 1940 it was decided that the SAAF should be entirely responsible for its own technical services and that Q services should be responsible for the provisioning of Motor Transport (MT). So the parting of the ways between the technical wings of the Air Force and the Army were now complete and will remain so till the late 1990’s.

There were several units already operating within the Technical Services organisation at the time. There were the “T” Stores Depots and Magazines at Pretoria and Cape Town, under senior officers, Majors AI Rothwell and CE Brown respectively, the “T” Stores at Tempe under Senior Stores Officer Major W B MacKay and the A & A at the Castle in Cape Town under the command of major E F Edwards. Lt A E Quarmby of the old Ordnance Armoury at the rear of Defence Headquarters was promoted and transferred to T S C Headquarters in hutment’s in the grounds of the old Pretoria Hospital, and Staff Sergeant A E Spradbury, an Armourer and a Springbok shottist, was commissioned as Lieutenant and appointed Officer Commanding the Central Armoury Workshop. This armoury was later designated 71 Technical Services Workshops (V) TSC–the “V” denoting “Volunteers “.

On 29 March 1940 a new oath of attestation in the Armed Forces were instituted, and all personnel taking this oath (for service anywhere on the African continent) were required to wear a shoulder- flash of orange-scarlet cloth, 22 mm wide.

Around this time, Commander- in- Chief, Middle East, Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell, visited South Africa to discuss with General Smuts what military contributions South Africa could make if hostilities threatened Egypt and the Suez Canal. Three months later Mussollini plunged Italy into the war on 11 June 1940, but South Africa had had a full nine months breathing space and much had been done.

The Central Organisation of Technical Training (COTT) was established by the Director General of War Supplies and commenced operations towards the end of 1939. By the end of July 1940 there were 3576 trainees enlisted but by the introduction of shifts this total of young men training as machine operators could be raised to 12 000 at a time.

The period decided on for basic training was 25 weeks. It was in general a basic fitter’s course and consisted essentially of bench work such as filing and the correct handling of tools. In the Machine shop work such as turning, shaping, grinding, drilling etc as well as blacksmithing. The initial plan contemplated that COTT was to be responsible for basic technical training only and organised purely along civilian lines. On completion of the course, trainees who had passed their trade tests were to be employed in either a military capacity or in industry, at the discretion of the Government.

Secondary or Advanced technical training, plus specialist training was the responsibility of the military authorities. The COTT Scheme soon established training centres in Cape Town, with facilities for the training of 300 young men; Durban with facilities for 275 trainees; Port Elizabeth– 270; East London–250; Bloemfontein-250; Pretoria-300; Milner Park in Johannesburg and by far the largest had provision for 2000 trainees, and Kimberley a further 225. Messrs African Oxygen LTD opened a special eight week course in welding during September and this led to a special centre being established at Germiston, where 25 welders could be trained per intake.

Rates of pay per COTT trainee was fixed at three shillings per day, plus living allowance and family allowance on the same scale as personnel serving in the Union Defence Force (UDF). Trainees were accommodated in Boarding Houses.

During July 1940, all trainees and their instructors were required to take the “Anywhere–in–Africa “ oath which, however, was not administered by the military authorities. The main purpose for this was to provide powers to deal with deserters, but these powers did not prove adequate. This was partly due to complications resulting from the “civilian contract” entered into between the Government and the trainee at the time of the latter’s admission to COTT. No deserters from COTT were apprehended under the Military Discipline Code (MDC).

The introduction of the “ Anywhere in–Africa “ oath resulted in the COTT scheme losing some of its purely civilian characteristics; as a corollary, military trainees were admitted to its basic training scheme on condition that the UDF accepted responsibility for accommodation, pay, discipline and general welfare of these trainees, all of whom were attested soldiers.

The admission of a great number of SAAF trainees led to departures from the initial scheme which contemplated one course of basic technical training extending over 25 weeks. An alternate course for SAAF artisan trainees extending over 16 weeks was established at Milner Park to meet the special needs of the Air-force.

In the five years of the war that COTT lasted, its activities contributed in a very large measure towards meeting the abnormal technical labour demands of the Union on a war footing, by training both military and civilian personnel. During this period approximately 21000 were posted from units of the UDF for basic training, or were trained at private firms and posted to the Defence Force. Unfortunately there are no records or statistics to show how the TSC benefited from the COTT scheme, though it is felt they must have got the lion’s share.

Quite a large number of women were trained under COTT from early 1941, though most of these went either to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force or as operators in munitions factories and in engineering shops producing war supplies.  A number of women were trained in basic fitting and were posted to 71 TS Armoury Workshops where they received further training in the repair of rifles. Several of these women, all members of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Services, insisted on shoulder-firing all the rifles they had repaired and when one thinks that the average rifle takes between three and five rounds before the sights are zeroed in, these young women must have had very sore shoulders, jaw bones and elbows after zeroing a batch of ten . 303 rifles, not to mention the “singing–ears“ for in those days ear muffs were not provided, neither were they compulsory equipment on an Armoury range.

During July 1940 the post of Deputy Director General of Technical Services was created. Lt Col G G Ewer, DSO, assumed duty as Officer Commanding Technical Services Corps. During this period a close liaison was being maintained between Deputy Director Technical Services (Workshops) (DDTS (W)) and the Base MT Workshops at Premier mine, where several mobile workshop units were being formed. The function of the Officer Commanding “ T “ Services Corps was similar to those normally required of an Officer Commanding a Regiment.

Workshops and warehouses at Premier Mine were taken over as the TSC base camp, with the married quarters of the mine in Oak Avenue used as the Officers Mess.

At this stage a TSC badge was designed and it was very obvious at the outset that little thought had gone into its creation. Fashioned in copper (not brass or white metal as all other badges of the time) it had a similar shield to the old SAOC badge and in the upper fourth was the initial letters TSC/TDK. Below this was an air screw to signify the connection between the SAAF and the new Corps (Motor Mechanics, Armament Artificers, Instrument Makers, Fitters and Turners and Armourer Apprentices). To digress, there were ten young SAAF Armourer Apprentices undergoing training with their Ordnance Corps counterparts at the time the TSC was formed, but they were not retained in the Air Force. The three loaded artillery shells placed in an upright position represented the Corps’ involvement in the manufacture, storage and distribution of munitions. These shells were set against a typical South African veldt landscape. The scroll was bisected by the point of a shield and the left scroll bore the words “ South Africa “ and on the right scroll “ Suid Afrika “ and the whole badge was 1⅛ inch (28 mm ) wide.

The new badge was received with very mixed reactions throughout the Corps, the full time Volunteers who had signed on for the duration of the war were only too pleased to get a badge they could call their own, and not have to wear the small Springbok “looking through a porthole”  badge. The hard core of Permanent Force (PF) men who had already built up an Esprit de Corps in their pre- war formations stubbornly clung either to their Air Force or Ordnance Corps badges, often wearing them when “stepping–out” and reluctantly donning the TSC badge when in camp or the workshops.  Also proudly worn were the old buttons, while the “General Service “button” bearing the Union Coat of Arms was looked upon in disdain.

The SAOC helmet flash was made up of horizontal bars of dark (Ordnance Blue), Orange- Tangerine (sealed PF side) and again Dark Blue. With the advent of the TSC, the upper bar of Dark Blue was replaced by sky blue, thus incorporating the SAAF helmet flash colour. In later years when the Tiffies went “Up North “they wore their black berets with a strip cut from the helmet flash and stitched the tricolour below their badges. This in turn, caused confusion amongst British Troops who were often asking why TSC men wore their 1939–1945 Star Medal ribbon on their berets. It so happened that this medal ribbon had the same colour combination as the Technical Service Corps.

A second TSC badge was designed and then issued during 1942 and this was much more generally accepted throughout the Corps. Manufactured from a dull bronze, it was approximately the same size as the previous badge. It depicted an aerial bomb in a vertical position – illustrating TSC continued involvement with the production, storage and delivery of all munitions and military explosives. The bomb was superimposed on a vehicle wheel, for the bulk of the TSC task then, as now, has to do with the maintenance and repair of all types of vehicles. The scroll was bisected by the nose of the bomb and the left portion of the scroll bore the initials T.S.C. and on the right, the Afrikaans, T.D.K.

The year of 1942 saw great changes on the war fronts of the world. After the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, the United States entered the war and the turning point in the Pacific Theatre of operations was the Battle of Midway in early June 1942. On the Eastern Front the German Army was being bled white in the frozen wastes of Stalingrad and Leningrad, the former lasting from August 1942 to February 1943. In the Western Desert, the Deutsches Afrika Korps was stopped at El Alamein by the South Africans in July 1942, and rolled back by Montgomery’s 8th Army on 23 October 1942.

The year 1960 was a major one in the history of the Technical Services Corps, for this was the year that the present proud badge came into being. The bimetal device was adopted on 4 July 1960, replacing the cap badge of 1942. The stallion in white metal is alert, wears a headstall and stands with its hind feet on the subjacent scroll (a position suggesting the rampant and referred to by a Major TJ Edwards in his book “Regimental Badges” as forcene). The background is a flash of lightning represented in brass.

The stallion with headstall indicates power under control, mechanical or horsepower, while the lightning flash symbolises electrical power. These symbols were freely adopted from the badge of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, which derived inspiration from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The scroll is subdivided into three proportions, the first containing the initials T.D.K., the second is without letters while the third has T.S.C.

The Instrument Shop at 61 Base Workshop was deeply involved in the manufacture of the prototype badge. A representative from a badge-manufacturing firm in Pretoria had been consulted and he stated that it was not economically possible to manufacture the badge as proposed. Sgt. PJ Nel was in charge of the Instrument Shop and he instructed two apprentices to get on with the job, under his supervision. Pte HJ Strydom made a tracing of General Christiaan de Wet’s famous white Arabian, Fleur, from a photograph of the larger than life equestrian statue outside the Raadzaal in Bloemfontein. This tracing, without the figure of De Wet and the saddle, but with headstall was transferred to aluminium, cut out and Strydom carefully sculpted the contours of the body. Pte JS de Villiers cut the lightning flash from brass – Cloete and the lettering carefully cut on an engraving machine. Another apprentice suggested to Strydom that before he finish the sculpting, he trace in the fact that Fleur was a stallion, after all, one cannot see the gender of the equestrian figure on the REME badge. With tongue in cheek this detail was performed and, much to everyone’s surprise in later months the badge was approved in total.

A year later and shortly after South Africa was declared a Republic, the first of the new TSC badges was issued throughout the Corps. A rumour began several years later that the badge had won an International design award. This has no foundation, for had it been the case the Director TS would certainly have a record in the form of a certificate, letter or plaque and this has not been forthcoming. The rumour persists and lends a certain lustre and mystique to the Corps, and can only contribute to elan and esprit de corps.