131 



And so, near midnight I went to bed and actually slept a few 

 hours. Despite my extreme weariness I needed no alarm clock; 

 indeed never do need one, for I can wake at any desired moment, 

 but I beat myself that morning, and woke at 3 a.m. and was in 

 the car at five. Mrs. Campbell was up at four and we had coffee 

 and litchis together; George was already away. Knowing my liking 

 for fruit, the Campbells had put piles of all sorts in my room, 

 especially great bunches of litchis, which we rarely see in Grahams- 

 town, and those I had not eaten Mrs. Campbell helped me stuff 

 into my case. 



It was misty at the aerodrome, and we heard the plane circling 

 long before she came into view. When the door was opened three 

 huge Air Force Officers emerged and came over towards us. The 

 local Commander called out, 'Commandant Blaauw, let me intro- 

 duce you to Professor Smith,' and a powerfully built man of about 

 thirty, in whose strong face shone piercing eyes, came up with hand, 

 outstretched. To his conventional greeting I answered, 'I bet 

 when you joined the South African Air Force you never expected 

 to command a plane sent to fetch a dead fish.' His face opened a 

 bit at that, and his brief reply left no doubt that he felt that way. 

 He was clearly a powerful personality, and I soon learnt from the 

 others that he was an ace pilot from Korea, one of our best. They 

 were all covertly scanning me closely; what was in this skinny 

 little fellow to get a Prime Minister to send a special plane to look 

 for a fish ? I thought again of my Brigadier in Pretoria. I judged 

 Blaauw a tough who would fight to the very end, a wonderful ally, 

 but a dangerous enemy, even as a prisoner he would be a danger 

 and need special care. 



They asked if I was ready, I said yes I was, but were they ? This 

 startled them, but after a second's thought they said they were. I 

 asked what food they had? They said iron rations, standard on 

 the plane, nothing else, they would not need any. I asked how they 

 knew that, and they said they were confident that those would be 

 all that were necessary. I smiled inwardly, though with what I 

 had brought, plus those iron rations, I felt there would be enough 

 for emergencies, so left it at that. Then I asked how much water 

 was aboard, and was told about three gallons, in the lavatory. 

 Why? I asked if they knew tropical East Africa, and without 

 waiting for any answer went on to say that if all went well that 



