A True Rhodesian van der Merve Story
For weeks, even before VE day, the major concern was the return of Rhodesia's liberated POW's which kept Edgar Whitehead as Acting Rhodesian High Commissioner to Britain fully occupied.
The return of the prisoners revealed many sagas. Amongst the strangest stories was that of a young Afrikaans speaking Air Gunner, shot down over Belgium when his Lancaster got a direct hit and caught fire with all the bombs still in the racks. The captain gave the order to bail out. He was the sole survivor.
Shortly before he had become engaged to a very charming Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and for a long time was posted missing before his capture was confirmed. The Belgian Underground managed to conceal him and he worked as a farm laborer, his Afrikaans letting him pass as Flemish. Ultimately he was betrayed to the Germans by a collaborator and was very nearly shot as a spy. However, the Germans allowed him to dig up his uniform and accepted him as a POW.
A prisoner for two years, he escaped altogether three times finishing up in one of the really bad camps. He came from a mining family and in between escaping he passed all his mining engineering exams by correspondence courses. Liberated by the Russians, Edgar had to cross-examine him to extract his story.
The interview went like this: "How did you get on with the Russians?"
"Oh, Mr. Whitehead, I did not like them at all."
"Why not?"
"They did not give me enough to eat."
"What did you do?"
"I just walked out on them."
"Where did you go?"
"I walked West across Germany until I came to a deserted farm where I stole a stallion and a pair of riding breeches. Then I started to ride across Germany. It was quicker."
"What happened next?"
"Oh, Mr. Whitehead, then I got heavily fired upon by the Russians and had to surrender again. They explained to me that anybody in a blue tunic riding a horse in the middle of Germany must be a Uhlan."
"What did you do then?"
"Oh, Mr. Whitehead, then I threw away that horse and began walking across Germany again. At last I came to the Elbe and the Russians arrested me again. They looked at my papers and said, 'British. Good. Vodka.' Then we all drank Vodka until it was all finished. After that the Russians began to drink the captured German petrol until they were all very drunk so I swam across the Elbe to join the Americans."
He seemed none the worse for his experience. His little English WAAF had waited for him for two years. He cabled his father in Rhodesia for permission to marry in accordance with custom. The family approved provided the bride agreed to a second ceremony under Dutch Reformed Church rites as soon as they returned. She had no objection to this. Edgar attended their wedding in London and was never to see a more devoted couple.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, by permission.
- Photo Credit: Bae Systems. https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/avro-683-lancaster