Service Details
Name:
 BREYTENBACH
Given Name:
 JACOBUS STEPHANUS JOHANNES
Initials:
 J S J
Service No:
 1520
Rank:
 Sergeant
Other Casualties of this Rank
Regiment:
 Umvoti Mounted Rifles, S.A. Forces
Other Casualties from this Regiment
Date of Death:
 1945-04-19
Other Casualties on this Date
Date of Birth:
 1910-12-22
Age:
 34
Cause of Death:
 Died in air raid, whilst a POW in Germany. During the infamous marching column of POWs from Fallingbostel to Lubeck, where they would have been a potential "bargaining chip" with the Allies at the end of the war, a patrol of Royal Air Force Typhoons mistook the column for German troops and attacked with rockets and cannon fire. Close to 60 men were wounded and 30 were killed, as well as a few German guards. The Typhoons came back over for a second run, but brave POWs ran in the open field, waving their arms to stop a second attack, which the pilots did when realizing their terrible mistake
Additional
Information:
Son of Jan Andries and Jacoba Maria Susanna Breytenbach, of Louwsburg, Natal, South Africa. Born Louwsburg. A motor mechanic. Captured at Tobruk. Commemoration stone in Vryheid Cemetery
Commemoration
Country:
 Germany
Other Casualties commemorated in Germany
Locality:
 Berlin, Berlin
Other Casualties commemorated in Berlin, Berlin
Cemetery:
 BERLIN 1939-1945 WAR CEMETERY
Other Casualties commemorated in this Cemetery
Grave Reference:
 11. E. 8.

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