1942: WW2: SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE BRIGADE: THE MURDER OF PRIVATE J “PIET” ZULU AS DESCRIBED BY AN EYEWITNESS, SERGEANT J FOLSHER, MM
Sergeant J Fölscher’s eyewitness account and further researched and compiled by Brig HB Heymans (SAP—Ret).
Abstract
The life story of Private J Zulu, No N12401, (affectionally known as “Piet Zulu”) of the Native Military Corps – South African Forces – who was murdered by a German soldier after the fall of Tobruk. Sgt Fölscher was an eyewitness and mentions this murder in his book about his exploits during the second world war. Pvte Zulu’s grave is at Tobruk.
The badge of the Native Military Corps
2ndSA Div shoulder flash
22 June 1942
It all started at eleven o’clock in the morning of 22 June 1942[1].
Sergeant J Fölscher was a member of the Second South African Police Battalion (2SAP). The Sgt-Maj of 2SAP was Fred Geldenhuis[2].
The two RSM’s of 2SAP and 1SAP respectively: WO Fred Geldenhuis and brig LG Snyman
They were dug in together with the First Police Battalion (1SAP) and the Seventh South African Reconnaissance Regiment on the west side of Tobruk. The South Africans covered a large part of the battle front on the west side, up to the sea. They were seasoned veterans who had already had their baptism of fire in Abyssinia. They were even looking forward to the German attack. Their fortifications were solid, and their weapons were oiled. They lacked nothing. The morale of their group of men was probably by far the highest of all those who were in a semi-circle around the port town of Tobruk. Gen. HB Klopper knew this too and that is why he placed them right in the path of where the main attack of Rommel’s advancing forces was expected.
Most troops believed that their fortress was impenetrable, for they had taken it over just as it had been built by the Australians who had been stationed in the same places a year before to keep the Germans away from this important entrance to the sea and the harbour. What the Germans could do, 2SAP believed, they could also do, and just as well or even better! Little did they know that the defence of Tobruk this time had an Achilles heel. On the east side, where their high command least expected an attack, the Indian Regiment was dug in. This regiment had had to take a terrible bite out of the German rush along the coast in recent days and was frenzied. Gen. Klopper knew this well and that is why he gave them the east side to defend. They thought Rommel knew it as well. As in the past, Rommel stormed past Tobruk with his armoured columns as if he would ignore this troublesome thorn in his side again. When he was through, however, he got stuck and turned back.
With his 15th and 21st Armoured Divisions, his 15th Rifle Brigade as well as the Ariete Armoured Division and the Brescia Division he charged straight at the weakened Indians and broke through. Before they were even really involved in fighting, Tobruk had already fallen behind them (2SAP).
Gen. Klopper surrendered. Early on Monday morning 22 June 1942 they were already hurling rifles, machine guns, cannons and heavy vehicles down the cliffs into the sea. At eleven o’clock in the morning a German soldier pointed his Mauser at Sgt Fölscher and said in broken English: “For you the war ist over“. The Sergeant says he almost told him that he could speak his own language, because at Springbok High School he had excelled in German and as a police official in South West Africa, German was the common language.
And then hell began, the men became thirsty. At that moment Sgt Fölscher was already thirsty and the men around him were all thirsty. Yet there was one cheerful man. He was Piet, their Zulu messenger[3] and great friend. They had come from Durban together and had gone through the Abyssinian campaign together. However, Sgt Fölscher had long since made Piet more than a messenger.
There at the watering hole of Marassas further to the west of Tobruk, where the Stukas flew low every evening after dropping bombs on the Allied positions, Piet helped Sgt Fölscher weld the light .55 anti-tank gun onto an empty oil drum so that he too could shoot up into the air. Sgt Fölscher loaded its little magazine of three rounds and as the unsuspecting Stuka roared over them to gain altitude, they opened fire. Sgt Fölscher never saw the Stuka fall, but the blue smoke billowed out of it. “Piet Zulu”, as Sgt Fölscher called him, began to dance like a madman on the hot sand. The next afternoon, instead of a Stuka, a Messerschmitt dived down on them and literally shot the hell out of them!
When the Messerschmitt finally left, it roared as Piet laughed from his shelter. When Sgt Fölscher asked him what was so funny, he asked if Sgt Fölscher had seen Corporal Louw duck under the armored car. Corporal Louw[4] had just come out from under the handmade shower. Piet was cheerful and Piet was brave, because in the confusion he got his hands on a bottle of rum and drank it down without considering their predicament. When the young German soldier started cursing and scolding them again and urging them to walk faster, it was too much for this Zulu. He tapped Sgt Fölscher on the shoulder and said: “Sergeant, watch how I’m going to beat him now!”. Sgt Fölscher grabbed Piet by the arm to try to stop him, but his fingers slipped over the sweaty muscles and then he came straight at the German with his arms folded and his fists clenched. The German’s Luger barked three times and then Piet fell forward, turned on his back and looked up with glassy eyes into the smoke-covered sky. Sgt Fölscher could see that “Piet Zulu” was dead. Sgt Fölscher wanted to jump out at him, but the guard also aimed at him and Sgt Fölscher jumped back into line and stumbled on. Sgt Fölscher says felt a sense of melancholy and anger come over him. He knew that here was a Zulu warrior who would never walk the grasslands of KwaZulu again and that a few Zulu women would wait in vain for the return of a husband and father.
Sgt Majozi of the South African Police in the uniform of the NMC. This is the type of uniform worn by “Piet Zulu”. (Photo SAPS Archive).
The death of “Piet Zulu” crowned the horror of that terrifying day. Sgt Fölscher says he most certainly shocked at the sight of the shooting of his friend and comrade.
Sgt Fölscher’s entire nervous system was by then in such a state of dejection and every part of his body was so dominated by thirst and exhaustion that it was unable to absorb another shock reaction. He says it is difficult to explain such a feeling, but still, one reaches such a stage. One’s friend is shot dead next to you and you must go on as if his death were one of the less important things that happened. Someone who did not know our circumstances might accuse one of callousness. However, it was at night, when one is silent, because one feels it will help one resist the thirst, that shock welled up from the dark depths of one’s body. At first the sadness and longing for his friend crept slowly through his body, but in time it turned into anger and a determined urge to repay these people. Sgt Fölscher says “As I have reflected over the years on the death of Piet Zulu, I have become convinced that this black soldier’s death was a major driving force in the days and weeks and months that followed, in making me do some of the things I did! One thing I will never forget about Piet is his infectious and almost limitless sense of humour. There was also the desire in him to fight like a real soldier. Whenever there was a skirmish or when we expected a skirmish, I made sure that Piet Zulu got his .303 and bandolier”.
Comments by HBH
Johan Fölscher is identical to:
- Union Defence Force: No SAP 196859, “Act/Corp”[5]; and
- No 19549 (Mounted) Constable JCEP Fölscher No 53 District (Omaruru) SWA[6].
- The Military Medal (MM) awarded on 26 Jul 1945 for “bravery in the field” [7]. According to King Sgt Fölscher die was awarded the medal for “gallant and distinguished service prior to, and during the battle of Tobruk[8] [9].
- Sgt Fölscher’s nom de geure in Italy was Giovanni Rossi. He was well-known and a legend in Italy where he partook in various skirmishes [10] Apparently, he was later appointed as Sergeant in the UDF because there are various mentions of Sgt Fölscher’s. His nickname was “Ginger”.[11]
- Initially he was a POW in Camp 344[12].
- For No. 196859 Sergeant Johann Christian Emanuel Petrus FOLSCHER, South African Forces, substitute No. 196859 Sergeant Johan Christian Emanuel Petrus FOLSCHER, South African Forces[13].
Piet Zulu is identical to:
- Private J Zulu N12401 (known as “Piet”) Native Military Corps S.A Forces, buried at Tobruk war cemetery at grave H.12. Date of his death (murder) is 21/06/1942 which is the day Tobruk surrendered.
Native Military Corps (NMC)
The “Native Military Corps” (NMC) was a South African military unit during World War II. It consisted of Black South African volunteers recruited into the Union Defence Force (UDF). Despite the unit’s name, they had no combative role and served as labourers attached to white South African UDF military units. The objective was to free up the limited number of white recruits in the UDF for combat roles[14].
Bibliography
- J Huisamen en J Fölscher: Vlug na Vryheid, Perskor, 1987 ISBN: 0 628 03187 4
- Terrance King: Gallantry Awards of the South African Police 1913 – 1994, Rhino Research, 2000, ISBN 0 620 26275 3.
- Vlug na Vryheid – J Huisamen en J Folsher, Perskor, 1987 ISBN: 0 628 03187 4. ↑
- His surname is Geldenhuis and not Geldenhuys – HBH. ↑
- Pvt Piet Zulu was a member of the Native Military Corps and attached to 2SAP -HBH ↑
- Most probably L/Corp EG Louw see King p 288. ↑
- King 2000: 265 ↑
- King 2000: 265 ↑
- Huisamen & Fölscher 1987: 124 ↑
- Vlug na Vryheid – J Huisamen en J Folsher, Perskor, 1987 ISBN: 0 628 03187 4 ↑
- chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37194/supplement/3858/data.pdf – Supplement to London Gazette ↑
- Huisamen & Fölscher 1987: 62 ↑
- Huisamen & Fölscher 1987: 104 ↑
- King 2000: 283 ↑
- chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37331/supplement/5318/data.pdf – Supplement to London Gazette ↑
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Military_Corps – accessed 14 June 2025 – HBH ↑