War Stories

My father never did any military service. He was very young (around 5 or 6) when WWI started and was too old for front line service in WWII, but he did volunteer for a type of home guard in Cape Town. The city had a strict blackout policy at night since it would be a navigational aid for enemy submarines. One duty of the home guard was making sure that the blackout was being observed. If they discovered a house which was leaking light, they had to inform the occupants. After fixing the blackout, the patrol was supposed to report the occupants. Everyone knew that breaking blackout was serious trouble, so the occupants would bend over backwards to avoid being reported. If the patrol members were acquainted with the occupants of the house, a sip of brandy was often enough to avoid going on report.

My parents never spoke about WWII, and this was the only story my mother ever told me about that time, and for that reason it has stuck in my memory. Sometimes I wish I has asked them more about that time in their lives, but my feeling is that they preferred not to talk about it. Even though the fighting was far away from Cape Town, it was still a difficult and uncertain time for everybody.