Roll Out the Barrel

Super-careful South African censors finally released a story of the days when the Italians were rampant and the Allies unprepared. Back in 1940 a South African crew took an ancient Valencia biplane loaded with supplies, ferried them to a Kenya outpost south of Mussolini's then-powerful Ethiopian empire. At dinner an engineer told them about a nearby Italian fort "simply waiting to be bombed."

The Valencia was no bomber, but the crew was willing. From a 40-gallon oil drum stuffed with 386 sticks of dynamite, parts of a sewing machine, a motorcar differential and two packets of incendiary bullets, they fashioned their bomb, eventually squeezed it into their crate.

To a chorus of Roll Out the Barrel the Valencia lumbered over the Italian fort. Fuses were lighted with cigarets, but there was almost disaster when the bomb stuck in the door. Finally the crew, their backs braced against the fuselage, managed to get the bomb away. The Valencia lurched crazily as the fort, squarely hit, disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

To South African Air Force headquarters, which had not been informed, the Italian radio that night sounded more than usually inaccurate. It told of a "powerful South African Air Force raid" on the Namoroputh fort.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.