| Notes |
- Air Coporal Isaac Goldberg (1 February 1925 Siauliai, Lithuania - 16 July 2000 Johannesburg,
South Africa) service number 338100V South African Air Force, was the son of Reverend
Hirsch Mordechai Goldberg (1900-1967) and Nechama Sonia Goldberg born Vilinov (1900-
1983) of Uitenhage.
He was educated at Muir College, Uitenhage. As soon as he finished school, he volunteered
with the Union Defence Force. On the 16 April 1942 he signed an attestation in Port
Elizabeth. He was assigned to the posting of an air mechanic in the South African Air Force
and was sent to 100 Air School, Voortrekkerhoogte for basic training. He then was
transferred to 71 Air School, Milner Park Johannesburg for basic workshop /operator
training on the 1 July 1942. On the 1 October 1942 he was sent to 64 Air School, Tempe
Bloemfontein for training as a wireless operator. In June 1943 he was posted to Wireless
Workshops, Waterkloof Pretoria. At the beginning of January 1944 he was posted to 21 Air
School, Kimberley to the Mobile Air Force. He was promoted from Air Mechanic to
Temporary Air Corporal in that month. He was sent from the SAAF Advanced Training Camp
to 7 Wing South African Air Force and saw service in Egypt (January -February 1944) and
then in Italy from February 1944 to June 1945. He was a member of a rugby team which
included other personnel of the 7 Wing SAAF. A photograph taken in April 1944 included
Colonel Douglas Haig Loftus (1917-1991) D.S.O. D.F.C., and Colonel Andrew Christian
Bosman (1917-1947) D.F.C. No. 7 Wing was part of the Desert Air Force (DAF), an Allied
tactical air force made up of squadrons from the Royal Air Force (RAF), the South African Air
Force (SAAF), the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the United States Army Air
Forces (USAAF) and other Allied air forces. On the 28 th May 1945 the Desert Air Force fly
past took place from Campoformido Airfield, Italy and included No. 7 Wing. Air Corporal
Goldberg returned to South Africa and in October 1945 he was assigned from Mobile Air
Force Depot, Pretoria to 7 Air Depot SAAF. He was discharged on the 31 January 1946. He
received the awards of the 1939-1945 Star, Italy Star, The War Medal 1939-1945 and Africa
Service Medal. Following his discharge he was a student at Rhodes University,
Grahamstown.
Many years later, he related his war time experience to his son in an email.
‘Please note that the army and air force were integral parts of the SA forces, and that one
could be transferred from one to the other as the need arose or if men had had special
training in a particular field. There was little difference in those days, quite unlike the forces
of other countries, or even as it exists today.
I originally joined the air force as an air gunner,and underwent quite a bit of training until it
was discovered, by means of a 'flying medical' that I was shortsighted in my left eye. I and
two others were taken off the course, and transferred to other units of our choice. I went to
the signals section of the army and completed the course with honours. I was then chosen
to do specialised signals training, which I also completed with honours. The rest
of my company then went to Egypt, but I had to remain, very reluctantly, for more
specialised training. Eventually I was sent to the desert 'up north' and rejoined my unit, with
which I remained for some time, until the N. African campaign came to an end. In Italy, I was
re-transferred to the air force once again, and spent a long period of time with a special
unit, Ground-Air liaison. Our job was to pinpoint targets for Spitfire and Hurricane fighters
carrying 500 lb bombs. We would be very well camouflaged and pinpointed gun flashes and
troop and tank movements, which I would transmit to flight leaders as they came over. As
you may well imagine, we had a font-line view of the war! My radio callsign was Bucksot,
and I worked on 9 different channels. No.2 channel was our own, i.e. British tanks deployed
in the area. We had a different colour flare for each day of the week, and I would ask their
commanders to send up the colour flare of the day so that we could identify them, and so
not send in the planes to bomb and strafe them.’
He married Jenny Flax (1927-1993) on the 14 February 1948 in Johannesburg and they had
three children.
Sources:
1. Personal correspondence Edmund Goldberg, son and Doreen Traub, daughter.
2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_Commonwealth_Air_Training_Plan_facilities_i
n_South_Africa
3. Colonel Douglas Haig Loftus (1917-1991) D.S.O. D.F.C. was appointed Wing Leader of
7 SAAF Wing in August 1942. He was awarded a DSO in June 1943. In April 1944 he
returned to South Africa as OC of 11 OTU Squadron SAAF.
4. Colonel Andrew Christian Bosman (1917-1947) D.F.C. was responsible for flight
operations of Air Wing 7 / SAAF from January 1944. He remained in that position
until in October 1944 when it completed its second round crowned by the award of
the DSO in recognition of his leadership skills. In July 1945, he was promoted
to Colonel and took effective command of Wing 7 / SAAF.
Here are a couple of excerpts from my late Dad's
unpublished book "OF MINES and MEN" by Dr. Isaac Goldberg:
Another reason for moving to Rhodesia lay with my
friendship with Ian Smith, later to become Prime
Minister of that country. We first met at Rhodes
University after the war, and immediately became
good friends, principally because we were able to
share war-time experiences and also that we
enjoyed playing rugby. He soon became a force
to be reckoned with as Chairman of the Student’s
Representative Council. At that time, he asked me
to stand for election as a member of the
Council, and I accepted. However, I later
withdrew when we heard that my chief opponent in
the elections was falsely telling students that
he had been wounded during the war (he walked
with a limp). When confronted by me, he admitted
that he was lying, and that he had had an
accident of some sort. Ian then asked me to stand
unopposed, but I did not wish to cause my
opponent any further embarrassment.and,
accordingly, stood down. We developed a mutual
trust and understanding which holds true to this
day. Strangely, years later when he was Prime
Minister, he asked me to stand as a Member of
Parliament, representing a constituency in the
Bulawayo area. I again declined, telling him
that I was not a “political animal”, that is,
that I had no desire to be heckled at at political meetings!
In 1948, after the general election in South
Africa, I had no knowledge of Ian Smith’s
political affiliations, neither did I care. I
regarded him simply as a friend, whom I would
like to meet again, in a land where no laws
existed to separate its inhabitants on race and
colour, and where no hatred existed based on the
colour of a man’s skin or his religion or any
other matter that did not provide for a happy
life. It was also at about this time that I
visited Ian Smith on his farm near Selukwe. He
was genuinely overjoyed at seeing me, and Jenny
and I spent a few happy hours reminiscing about
life at Rhodes University and the war-time days.
He and his wife, Janet, showered us with their hospitality.
Here are some unedited excerpts from an audio
interview that I did with my Dad in August of 1992:
I first met Ian Smith at university, Rhodes
University in 1946. We both came there as
ex-servicemen. I had never met him before. Never
seen or heard of him before but we became
friendly. To start off with we both had similar
sort of experiences to some extent and we both
liked one another. We became very good friends,
and are still good friends to this day. He was a
very forthright person. Assertive. Doing a
B.Comm. I was doing science so the B.Comm. people
had a lot of time on their hands and he took over
the Student Representative Council and became
head of the council, I think a Chairman or
President. I can’t remember the title and when
the next elections came up I was asked by him to
stand as a candidate for the council. At first I
was rather reluctant to do this but he insisted
and I said okay, I'll stand. My opponent, the
name of him I cannot recall. It doesn't really
matter, walked around with a limp, a distinct
limp and he was going around telling all the
students, particularly the first year students,
Inks as we called them¸ that he had been
wounded during the war as a soldier and Ian
Smith doubted this. All of us doubted this. He
didn't look like that sort of a person who had
been in a war at all so Ian Smith then asked me
to confront him openly. Where were you
wounded? What forces were you in? And I got a
hold of him with another guy and as a witness so
to speak and asked him where were you wounded
because you are going around telling everybody
you were wounded and he then admitted that he
hadn't been wounded and he hadn't even been in
the war but had some accident as a youngster
which brought about this limp. I told Ian Smith
that this was a total lie. I mean this man is
trying to get in fraudulently so he was asked to
withdraw and it became a very serious matter at
Rhodes. It was reported to the Senate that
this chap was telling lies trying to come in on
as a representative for council, Student Council
and in the end he was asked to leave the
residence and moved into town. Ian Smith asked
me to come in unopposed because this man had now
been forced to withdraw and I said no. I didn't
want to come in under those circumstances. If
we are going to have an election let’s have an
election. I'll win or I'll lose but I don’t want
to come in that way. I felt that I wasn't in a
position to take over in these circumstances. To
tell the truth I wasn't too keen to be on the
council anyway. I didn't have the time for this
type of thing. Attending meetings and talking
about political jargon to do with the Senate. I
wasn't keen to do this so I withdrew but we
remained friends and we played rugby together
until I was hurt. I withdrew from rugby. I
started refereeing. Ian Smith was quite a good
rugby player in his day. Pretty hard, tough
character. He played as a loose forward, I
think as a flank. He was a pretty good player
and we remained friends until we departed at
Rhodes. He got his B.Comm degree and I got my
degree and I always felt that I would like to
meet him again and he often said to me look when
you come to Rhodesia you come and look me up at
and so I always had it in the back of my mind. I
must look up Ian Smith again. Little did I
realize that he was going to become a very
important and famous person in Rhodesia. I
don’t think he himself knew that and had no such
idea or intentions. When we came back to
Rhodesia or rather when we went to live in
Rhodesia I made a point of contacting him in
Selukwe. He was still, I think he was just
becoming an M.P. then. He stood for parliament
and got in for Selukwe and of course subsequently
became Prime Minister. We had a number of
meetings together when he was Prime Minister.
I was living in Bulawayo. He used to meet me from
time to time, whenever he came through to
Bulawayo.He wanted me to run for parliament in
Bulawayo. I think it was Bulawayo East
Constituency. He said to me you'll walk it. You
don’t have to do anything. We’re going to get
100% vote there. I said no. I‘m not a
political man. I’m not that sort of person. I’m
not a political animal. He said are you sure? I
said yes. He said look. You are so well known
in Bulawayo. People stop you in the
streets. They see you on television. You've
given hundreds of talks and so on. He said you
are well known. You are a personality in
Bulawayo. So please stand. I said no I’m not
standing for office and that was the end of that
story. But we kept in close touch
in Salisbury. He invited us over for dinner
there and we had such a good time. We had a few
dinners there. My wife and I were often invited
to his house for dinner, particularly in
Salisbury. We spent many hours there, chatting
to him and many of his ministers, whom I knew on
a first-name basis. I also met quite a few of
the generals and people in the army and so on.
Sunday afternoon teas on the lawns of his house
and Ian Smith used to come out with his
dogs, barefoot and shorts and he was most
informal. I was never formal with Ian Smith. He
didn't care much for formality and we were really
open with one another and we had long
discussions subsequently when UDI was
declared. We didn't always agree with one
another. I didn't always agree with his views
and told him so and he wasn't annoyed with me,
He was just trying to do the right thing for
Rhodesia. I said you’re trying to keep it
colonial and preserve the colonial system
here. That’s all you’re really doing. The
blacks outnumber us 20 to 1 approximately. What
hope have we as white people to keep ourselves
going. And he said no we will. We've been
doing it for 70 years before. We have a
wonderful life here. Life is pleasant and
everyone is happy here. Those were his
words. Everyone is happy. I said yeah but he’s
got people from outside who are pushing him. I
said it’s a question of time. He said no, you’re
wrong. I said I understand what you’re getting
at but you’re wrong in your assessment and we remained friends.
I met most of the cabinet ministers. Life was
different then, than in South Africa, where
ministers and prime ministers were almost
taboo. There you could meet and chat to a
prime minister, any minister without much
difficulty, if you knew him, of course.I called
them by their first names as was customary
in Rhodesia. It wasn't like South Africa or any
other countries. It was very casual. Ian
McLean, Ian Dillon. We called ourselves by our
first names. On a first name basis. We all
knew each other. After UDI sanctions were
applied against Rhodesia. I played a small part
in this, trying to get minerals sold, trying to
break the deadlock between Rhodesia and Britain
and the United Nations. As a matter of fact I was
in Ian Smith’s office the day that Verwoerd
was murdered. I was visiting him in his office
and Ian McLean, the Minister of Health came
running in and said to Ian Smith. I've got some
bad news for you. He said what is it? Verwoerd
has just been murdered. He said What? Get the
cabinet together immediately in my office here. I
sat there wondering should I attend the cabinet
meeting or should I get out. So I said to Ian
Smith I'd better move out I think. I very nearly attended a cabinet meeting.
At his Muir College - Class of '41 reunion: Stan Vermaak, Tony Heugh, Bill McDonald, Malcolm
Gillmer, Henry McCabe, Peter Oosthuizen,Paul McCabe, Issy Goldberg & Hubert Maasdorp.
From the Muir College Magazines: Issy Goldberg obtained a Second Grade Senior Certificate Pass. (They did not record Matric. passes).
"Who's Who in Std. X" -
Born in Russia - Accomplishments: Impersonating, talking, piano.
ISAAC GOLDBERG
Collection Description
Passenger Lists leaving UK 1890-1960
Collections from
Australia & New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, United States
Country
SOUTH AFRICA
Title
MAST
Year
1928
Ship Name
GLOUCESTER CASTLE
Birth Year
1925
Age
3
Destination
CAPE
29 year old Nechama Goldberg with her two
children aged 5 and 3 on the 18th of April 1928 on the Gloucester
Castle and bound for Beira, Mozambique.
|
1925 - 2000 (75 years)
[1, 2, 3] 