Job Maseko was a South African soldier during World War II, serving in the Native Military Corps as part of the South African 2nd Infantry Division. He was one of many Allied troops captured by the Axis in the surrender of the port of Tobruk in 1942. He gained fame by his actions in sinking a German vessel with a milk can whilst serving as a POW stevedore in Tobruk harbour, for which he was awarded the Military Medal. Before the War Before the war, Maseko worked as a miner in Springs South Africa. After completion of basic training, he was sent to North Africa to join the 2nd South African Division. Surrender and sabotage Maseko became a prisoner of war on 21 June 1942 when Major-General Hendrik Klopper, commander of the South African 2nd Infantry Division surrendered the Tobruk Garrison with 32,000 men to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The garrison included 10,722 South Africans of the 2nd Division (of which 1,200 were Native Military Corps members). The Germans separated their prisoners by race. The white troops were sent to POW camps in Europe, but the prisoners of colour were retained in Italian POW camps in Africa where they were forced to work as manual labourers under horrific conditions. Part of the prisoners' forced labour involved loading and unloading supplies from German freight ships in the port of Tobruk. With his pre-war experience and exposure to explosives, while unloading cargo from a German freight ship in the Tobruk harbour on 21 July 1942, Maseko got three of his fellow prisoners to distract the German guards while he got busy below deck making a bomb using his pre-war mining experience. Using ammunition from which he extracted the cordite and a long fuse, Maseko put together an improvised explosive device which he stashed among jerry-cans of gasoline in the ship’s hold. While he and his fellow prisoners were taking the final load off the ship, Maseko lit the fuse and then left the ship. The ship was destroyed in the explosion and the subsequent fire. The next day the POWs were questioned about smoking while on board ship - to which they answered that cigarettes were forbidden and were not included in any rations, which could not be disputed by their Italian captors. Maseko later escaped from the Italian POW camp in Tobruk and walked for three weeks though the desert and