How South African Gold Won WW2!
Jamie, thanks for your support. Here are two sheets from my Simons Town display. These shed some light on the 200+ tons of South African gold that was collected in Simons Town by the USS Louisville in January 1940 . This is early in the war, before the disaster at Dunkirk (26 May - 4 June 1940) and long before the Battle of Britain (10 July - 31 October 1940). It makes me wonder what the British knew about their preparedness and ability to fight the Germans without American assistance which had to be paid for.
I was amazed to hear you say that you had been searching for this info "for years"! Neither of these covers cost much - the postage was more expensive. I am so chuffed with the Louisville cover. Please correct any historical inaccuracies. The essential facts are correct but maybe not the bigger picture of Lend Lease. I once heard someone say that Britain could not have fought WW1 without the SA gold it 'acquired' in the South African War. The Louisville story suggests that SA gold continued to be a strategic financial weapon in WW2 as well.
Uploaded files:Dear Steve,
Fascinating - many thanks. I was aware of the shipment, but not that there were covers from the Lousville's visit with a special postmark.
Best,
Bas
Again, a fantastic story, little know even in SA!
Here is a photo of USN Louisville reproduced from a small pocket book, 'The 'World's Warships' (1957) by Raymond V. B. Blackman, AMINA, AIMar.E. These two cruisers, the Louiville and the Augusta are desended from the original Wichita / Baltimore designs but being the last in the line vary considerably in appearance from others of their class by the spaced funnels that allows a space for an aeroplane catapult. This gives the Louisville the appearance of having a hull without backbone enough to bear the weight of 200 tons of South African gold.
It was while USN Louisville was showing the flag in South America that she was urgently rerouted to Simonstown, South Africa, to collect the gold. The US dealer PaperHistory has a number of USN Louisville covers for sale on eBay. These show some of the places where the ship was before and after going to South Africa, as well as the postmarks produced on board at these different destinations. She was in AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, on 4 MAR 1938; PEARL HARBOUR, HAWAII on DEC 21 1939; and MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY on OCT 27 19490.