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Although people later wondered whether this ever really happened Eddie was Mentioned in
Dispatches in January 1943 for this exploit. This was an award for valour. He was

apparently also credited with designing a modification to the air scoop / dust filter on the
SAAF Spitfires that allowed them to operate at low altitude.

During the later part of 1942 there was a period of leave on the Palestine coast at Tel Aviv
and his photo album contains many pictures of Eddie and his friends, arms around young

women, also on leave or on duty there. Following the victory at El Alamein (23 October – 4
November, 1942) Allied forces, including 40 Squadron, swept back rapidly across the old

battlefields, including Tobruk, to Tunis, where the North African Campaign ended on 12
May 1943. The Italian Theatre opened up and Eddie was now attached to the Repair and

Salvage Unit, collecting and rebuilding damaged aircraft. With this unit he proceeded

across Sicily and onto the “boot” of Italy as far as Naples. (Figs. 3.28 & 3.29). A spell of
leave in Egypt, with visits to the Pyramids, Luxor and Aswan, concluded his tour of duty

and on 12 January 1944 he returned to South Africa. Here he was attached to various Air

Depots in the Transvaal where he carried on in the job of servicing and repairing aircraft.

His discharge from war service was authorized in November 1945 and he was transferred to
Westlake, but evidently decided to remain on the strength of Cape Command as there was

enough work to be done servicing the accumulated aircraft. He was finally discharged
eighteen months later on 31 May 1947 after six-and-a-half years’ military service. His

discharge papers note his character as ‘Exemplary’ and his sobriety as ‘Very Good’. This

may have caused some mirth among his friends.

Of course he found it difficult to settle down. He worked for the fledgling SAA for a short
time before going to a diamond mine near Swartruggens. It was in this desolate part of

South Africa that the inspiration for his early monotypes was formed. He was a natural
salesman, so after a spell selling mining equipment he came back to Kalk Bay. He sold

industrial oil for a short time before joining Gossard as a travelling salesman, driving a