Justin Fox is a former editor of Getaway travel magazine and author of more than 20 books. His latest novel, Hell Run Tobruk, is published by Sapere (UK) and Jonathan Ball (South Africa).
In recent years, I’ve been engaged in writing a series of World War II novels featuring a young British lieutenant, Jack Pembroke, fresh out of Oxford and in command of a South African ship based in Simon’s Town.
Like many South African children of my generation, I had a fascination for World War II. I built model ships and aeroplanes, played war games in our suburban garden and devoured books about great battles, particularly naval yarns by the likes of Douglas Reeman, Nicholas Monsarrat and Alistair MacLean. But I was always disappointed that South Africa seldom featured in those stories. I think the seed was planted way back then to one day do something about the lack.
During my national service in the navy, I began to learn about the clashes that took place in the South Atlantic during World War II. Most South African ships were converted fishing trawlers or Norwegian whalers, hastily fitted with a few guns and depth charges to take on Nazi U-boats and raiders. I was astonished to learn that more than 150 Allied ships had been sunk in South African waters, mostly by German and Japanese submarines.
Before embarking on my series of novels, I needed to do a lot of research to get the period and events right. I spent many days in the British National Archives, Imperial War Museum and the British Library in London, as well as the archives of the Simon’s Town Museum, SA Naval Museum and the local MOTH (especially their meticulously recorded personal accounts of men who served at sea during the war). The research also brought me into contact with retired naval officers – all of them similarly passionate about World War II – who were happy to offer anecdotes and guidance.
My series tells the story of Jack Pembroke, posted from Britain to serve on escort ships based at the Cape. In this novel (each one is a standalone story) Pembroke and his ship HMSAS Gannet are sent ‘Up North’ to Egypt, where they join a flotilla escorting Allied convoys around the eastern Mediterranean.
Jack finds passionate romance with a Spanish beauty in Alexandria, but is soon thrust into battle while running supplies to the beleaguered town of Tobruk, home to the Second South African Infantry Division. With the pressure building and ships around him being sunk by enemy bombers, Jack must deal with his own trauma and it all comes to a head when Tobruk is surrounded, about to fall to Axis forces, with Gannet still trapped in the port.
Given my background as a travel journalist, I’m the kind of writer who needs to visit and experience the locations of my novels in order to capture the ‘spirit of place’. So, for Hell Run Tobruk, I spent time in Alexandria, trying to find the old haunts of the South African sailors during the war. I also visited the battlefields, cemeteries and museums of El Alamein to see where many South Africans fought and died.
Visiting the locations brings valuable authenticity to the writing … and it’s also a good excuse to travel to fascinating places. The next Jack Pembroke novel is set in Malta, so that’s where next I’m bound!