I Won't Be Home Next Summer: Flight Lieutenant R.N. Selley DFC (1917–1941)

By Kerrin Cocks and Ron Selley

Ronnie Selley, a South African from rural Natal, joined the RAF on a short-service commission in 1937, considered the Golden Age of aviation. During these glory years of Howard Hughes and Amelia Earhart few guessed at the brewing storm and dark days to come. After completing his training on antiquated First World War aircraft, Selley was posted to 220 Squadron Coastal Command, the RAF’s under-staffed and under-equipped poor relation to the more prestigious Fighter and Bomber Commands. Tasked with reconnaissance, convoy patrols and submarine-hunting the pilots of Coastal Command chalked up more flying hours than any other RAF Command. It was not uncommon for pilots to be in the air, searching the waters of the North Atlantic, for up to sixteen hours a day, in aircraft that were neither capable of such ranges nor, initially, adequately armed to defend their charges. From the outbreak of war until after its cessation Coastal Command had aircraft in the air twenty-four hours a day, every single day. The toll this took on the men of Coastal Command was unthinkable.

The first RAF pilot to sink a German U-boat, Selley went on the win the DFC for his actions during the Dunkirk evacuation. He won high praise and newspaper headlines such as “Plane fights 13 German warships”, “One RAF man bombs 3 ships, routs Nazis” and “One against eight” were not uncommon. Selley subsequently suffered acute battle fatigue and spent time convalescing at the Dunblane Hydro. Thereafter, he was posted by the Air Ministry as Air Vice-Marshal Breese’s personal pilot. On 5 March 1941 Ronnie Selley, Air Vice-Marshal Breese and the entire crew of the fully armed Lockheed Hudson they was flying experienced engine problems, lost speed, stalled and exploded on impact at Wick in northern Scotland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 30 Degrees South Publishers
• Release date: Oct 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781928211198

Book preview

Chapter One

Blithe beginnings

The family and its influences

The Flying Man, as Ronald Nicholas Selley became known, was the first son born to Nick and Milly Selley, in 1917. At the time Milly was only twenty-one and Nick was section manager at the Natal Estates Sugar Plantation at Mount Edgecomb in Natal, South Africa. Nick and Milly had two children, Ronald and his younger brother Geoffrey.

Nick and Milly married while they were on the sugar estate. Her father and mother had moved to Natal from the Orange Free State where he had been a steam-traction operator. This was cutting-edge technology at the time and he was employed as the steam-locomotive operator, hauling sugarcane on the estate from the fields to the mill. It was a successful marriage despite their respective families’ objections.

Nick’s father, Peter Selley, had immigrated to South Africa after completing a contract on the Suez Canal. Family commitments dictated that he return to Greece, but being a qualified engineer with good family references, he decided to pursue his destiny and fortune in South Africa, an emerging country with vast engineering potential.

It was here that he met and married Nellie van Deventer. He worked on all the major contracts in South Africa including the Hex River Pass railway and the waterworks and tunnel in Cape Town. He was associated with most of the railway lines built in South Africa, including the Vryberg–Mafeking line and the Aventuur and new Cape Central. It was while on one such contract that his youngest son Nick was born.

Nick’s mother was sister to Lieutenant-General Sir Jacob van Deventer KCB* CMG,* DTD,† a South African military commander of some repute. Van Deventer was born in Ficksburg in the Orange Free State on 18 July 1874. He began his military career in the Transvaal Republican Forces in Pretoria on 21 February 1896 as a gunner for the Transvaal State Artillery. At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) he had risen to battery commander and was attached to General Cronjé. It is thought that he fired the opening shot of the war at Kraaipan on 12 October 1899, the day President Kruger declared war. The day before, in anticipation of an attack, Colonel Baden-Powell had withdrawn his garrison of Cape Police from Kraaipan to Mafeking, fortuitously as it turned out. General de la Rey, one of General Cronjé’s field generals, captured Kraaipan the following day with his Litchenburg Commando. Twenty-six men were forced to surrender. Van Deventer fought at Modder River and was promoted to commandant in March 1901. In July that year he joined General Smuts in his raid into the Cape Province. This bold offensive had the small town of Zastron as its launch pad.

Situated a stone’s throw from Basutoland’s (Lesotho) southeastern border in the Orange Free State, Zastron was discovered by chance during a hunting expedition by Jan Hendrik de Winnaar. He and his brother received the blessing of the Kwena chief, Moshweshwe, to settle there in 1840 on the agreement that they would satisfy the chief’s love of peaches by an annual tribute in the form of fresh, dried, preserved and brandied fruit, with which they happily complied. When the Orange Free State declared war on the Sotho people eighteen years later, they found Moshweshwe’s stronghold at Thaba Bosiu impregnable. As a result of the Sotho asking the British for protection from the Boers and their kingdom becoming a British protectorate, the de Winnaars lost most of the land formerly given to them. De Winnaar named his now-diminutive farm Verliesfontein (Fountain of Loss) but farmed the land prosperously until his death in 1874. The town of Zastron was established two years after his death out of need, as the closest church and school were in Rouxville, thirty kilometres away. It was named in honour of President Brand’s wife, Johanna Sibella Zastrauw, who was born in Poland. It became an official municipality in 1882.

Shortly after Field Marshal Lord Roberts’s proclamation to the Boers on 15 March, offering them amnesty if they surrendered (not the leaders of course) Zastron was garrisoned by a small detachment of Brabant’s Horse. They were withdrawn soon afterward owing to the isolation of the outpost. However, it is possibly for that same reason that this little town played such an important role for General van Deventer and his men.

1901 opened with the first sweep of Kitchener’s policy to ‘burn’ the Boers into submission. By the middle of that year his approach was proving fruitful and the Boers found themselves hemmed in more than once, with narrow escapes becoming an all-too-common occurrence. By July, a below-strength, ill-supplied commando of Boers, under the command of Deneys Reitz, was making its way toward the Orange River, intent on invading the Cape Colony. Desperately short of ammunition they trailed a British column to collect .303 ammunition carelessly dropped by British soldiers. Resupplied, they based near Zastron at the end of August. While contemplating their next move, they noticed a mass of Boer horsemen making their way toward them. This turned out to be General Smuts and his second-in-command, General van Deventer. Having forded the river, Reitz, the generals and their men pushed south into the Cape Colony, chalking up their first success in the Stromberg Mountains against the 17th Lancers.

In October 1901 van Deventer invaded the Ceres district with the assistance, albeit later, of General Smuts. He captured Doornbosch and the 157 men of the Somerset East District Mounted Troops who were holding the post. It was in the same month that van Deventer met his nemesis, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Timson Lukin, a man who in time would become his ally as they fought, side by side, in the campaigns of the Great War. Major-General Sir Henry Timson Lukin KCB, CMG, DSO (1860–1925) fought in the Anglo-Zulu War (1879), the Basutoland Gun War (1880–1), the Bechuanaland Campaign (1897) and the Anglo-Boer War where he was in command of the artillery during the defence of Wepener, for which action he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order. From 1900 to 1901 he commanded the Cape Mounted Rifles and in October stopped to refit and rest at Biesiespoort before continuing his pursuit of van Deventer’s commando. On 24 October, although sighted by Lukin, van Deventer managed to evade him at Elandspoort.

The actions of 1902 got underway fairly quickly for van Deventer. In January he fought at Jakkalsvlei near Sutherland, where Lieutenant-Colonel Capper drove through the entrenched Boers to enter Sutherland. In April he captured Springbok and Port Nolloth and was wounded in the throat near Van Rhynsdorp, an injury which would result in permanent hoarseness. By this time, he had been promoted to commandant-general, second only to General Smuts. Some sources place the date of his injury two months earlier.

Van Deventer spent the next twelve years on his farm on the Crocodile River near Pretoria before the outbreak of the First World War caused him to emerge from military retirement. He spent the first year of the war at home, serving with the South African Staff Corps and commanding the force that quelled the rebellion by General Martiz in October 1914, also known as the Five Shilling Rebellion. By 1914, the mortal scars of the Boer War may have healed, but the psychological wounds were still very visible among a large part of the South African Boer community. They did not feel that it was in any way their duty to fight for King and Country. Hero of the Boer War, Denys Reitz felt the same way. It was commonly believed that if Britain were to be embroiled in a global conflict, it would be within the reach of the more staunch Boer faction to found an independent South African Republic. But the rebellion failed and its ringleaders received heavy fines and prison sentences.

Smuts, however, did not share the sentiments of these Boers and, as a consequence, neither did van Deventer. In early 1915 van Deventer commanded the southern invading force into German South West Africa (Namibia) from Upington. He was appointed Commander of the 1st South African Mounted Brigade and would join forces with General Lukin in occupying German South West Africa and placing it firmly in Allied hands.

In December 1915 van Deventer left for German East Africa where he waged a three-year campaign against General von Lettow-Vorbeck. The shrewd German general had mounted naval guns on wheels which he proceeded to tow around East Africa, harassing the South African forces. Von Lettow-Vorbeck did not surrender at the end of the war, he merely ceased fighting. (Throughout history the only German general ever to surrender was General von Paulus who surrendered to the Soviets after being surrounded at Stalingrad during the Second World War.)

During this time van Deventer was promoted to major-general and awarded a knighthood—Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB). In May 1917 he was again promoted and earned himself the title Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) and a Decoration for Devoted Service (DTD). In 1920 he was made aide-de-camp (ADC) to King George V. Although retired, he acted as a part-time inspecting officer of the Active Citizen Force in 1922, again assisting with the suppression of local revolts, this time the miners’ revolt on the Rand. He died later that same year, on 17 August 1922.

Local hero, scourge of the Tommies, adversary of the famous von Lettow-Vorbeck and friend and confidant of the esteemed General Smuts (who was a close friend of Ronnie’s parents, Nick and Milly), Jacob van Deventer’s adventures and exploits had an indelible effect on the young Ronnie who, throughout his life, constantly sought adventure and flirted with danger.

Pioneering parents

Nick was born in 1896 on a construction site between Bulawayo and Salisbury, the youngest of ten children. Following in his father’s footsteps, Nick became an engineer and joined Natal Estates where he built a small tramline bridge, a project he was prouder of than the giant Tugela bridge he would later build. He left Natal Estates for Oudtshoorn to construct the irrigation scheme canals for the Kamanassie Dam. After completing that contract, he returned to Natal and built large portions of the Mtubatuba–Gollel railway line, portions of the Empangeni–Nkwaleni line, the Tugela rail bridge, Umfolozi bridge, Nyalasi bridge, Hluhluwe bridge, Culverts bridge, Pongola bridge and the Delville Wood tunnel.

Nick then opened up the St Lucia Estuary by taking the first car across the inlet, using two boats as a makeshift pontoon. He was influential in getting the township proclaimed and built the Estuary Hotel, adding to it the Angler’s Hotel. Through his dynamic influence, St Lucia became the popular place it is today. Nick’s participation in the First World War began in South West Africa from where he was sent to join the 4th South African Horse in East Africa. It was here that his friendship with Pretorius was forged. Apparently the Germans had taught the locals in Tanganyika to make gunpowder, as the ingredients were there for the taking. Sulphur could be found on Mount Kilimanjaro and in the sulphur springs of the Rift Valley. Saltpetre was carefully scraped up from urine deposits left by the hyraxes, or dassies, which always urinated on the same spot. Charcoal came from wood and, when needed, percussion caps were made from brake-lining rivets shortened and filled with ground-up match heads. This mixture was powerful enough to kill game and became a problem for the Germans when their own teachings were used against them.

During the Second World War Nick helped with intelligence and rescue work along the Zululand coast. Many ships were torpedoed there—some twenty-three in December 1942 alone.

Deneys Reitz and General Smuts were close friends who would visit to discuss the different issues of concern at the time. Nick’s uncle, General van Deventer, had been commander of the 4th South African Horse under Smuts. A longstanding friend of Nick’s was Major Pretorius, with whom Nick hunted in Mozambique in later years. Pretorius was away in the Congo ivory hunting at the outbreak of the First World War, unaware that war had been declared. When he returned to South Africa, Smuts promptly sent for him and Pretorius was then commissioned as a major and scout to the regiment.

While owning the hotel at St Lucia, Nick had been contracted to build the highway between Pretoria and Middleburg, so he and Milly took up temporary residence in Reitz. During this project he introduced some of the most modern equipment in road-making—portable crushers and a Paisley paving plant.

During August 1943 Nick sold the hotels at St Lucia and bought a farm in Hluhluwe—Aberdour Estates, a huge block of land. He was a prominent farmer with drive and energy for the betterment of the area. He was a founder member of the Hluhluwe Farmers’ Association and served on the Nagana Advisory Committee and the Roads Action Committee. He was chairman of the Zululand Committee of the Natal Games and Parks Board, a member of the Parks Board and a member of the Malaria Committee. After the war he was a prominent member of the Torch Commando,* while Milly served as secretary to the Torch Commando in Zululand.

Nick’s farming operations comprised breeding some of the finest Afrikaner stud cattle in the Union and a first-class dairy herd. The dairy undertaking was large enough to distribute forty gallons of cream every day, while Milly dispensed sixty dozen eggs a day. All this produce was transported to Ncemane Siding in Milly’s Jeep station wagon. Nick had one of the finest rose gardens in the district, with some four hundred rose bushes—small wonder their house always had vases full of fresh roses.

Lions were an ever-present hazard during construction of the railway in northern Zululand. They caused much harassment around the labourers’ camp at night, as the meat rations which Nick had shot would be hung up around the camp. Nick and Milly shot many lions and spoke often about lions in their camp at night, causing all kinds of difficulties. The lions came from the newly formed Mkuze Game Reserve, finding their way to Zululand from both Swaziland and Mozambique.

It was into this family that Ronnie—Ronald Nicholas Selley, aka The Flying Man—was born. His father was a successful, determined, pioneering man; his mother was theatrical and outgoing and had no problem bringing a shotgun to bear in a face-off with a lion. Milly had not shied away from rustic camp life in a construction site, and had adapted just as easily to the more sophisticated social world of the hotel and its colourful guests. Ronnie inherited his mother’s flair for the dramatic and his father’s determination, making him a popular, confident young man, eager for adventure. He was spellbound by the stories Nick and Milly would tell of their early exploits and knew thus that life could be lived from one exhilarating exploit to the next—all you had to do was be brave enough to live it, and he was.

A huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ childhood

Ronnie grew up in the wilds of northern Zululand where Nick was building the railway and bridges from the Tugela River up to Golela on the Swaziland border. It was very wild country in those days, anything and everything went, from lions around the construction camp to crocodiles mauling the labourers. Hunting and shooting was normal and his school holidays were filled with adventure.

His speciality was wild duck which he hunted on the pans along the various river floodplains, he never failed to keep the table well supplied, being an accomplished duck hunter from an early age. He first used a .410 shotgun and then a 12-bore and as he grew up he learned to lead on a wing shot, which would later stand him in good stead.

Malaria was rife in Zululand. Milly often said that for every sleeper laid on the railway line a person died of malaria. Even if this was an exaggeration to emphasize the enormity of the issue, it does give an idea of the spread of the disease.

Ronnie went to boarding school, attending Highbury Preparatory School in Hillcrest as a junior and completing his education at Michaelhouse in the Natal Midlands. There were no schools in the wilds of Zululand and the Midlands of Natal were malaria free. The Zulu never lived on what is known as the coastal plains because of the threat of malaria. They lived in the healthy highlands, sending their cattle down to the coastal areas only in the malaria-free winter months. It was the influence of white settlers and the control of malaria and cattle diseases that made this land habitable. It is a comfortable place to live with a temperate climate and crops grow there all year round, following the adage of when the pumpkins on the roof are finished only then will we think of planting