As a result of rheumatic fever contracted as a child, Dan had a weak heart. Being confined to bed for long periods, he became a radio ham and I think he was the youngest qualified ham in South Africa to obtain a license to broadcast. You had to show special competence, especially in Morse Code, in order to receive the British Empire Certificate Postmaster General’s Certificate of Competency (first Class).
In 1940, when he was 18, he went to Durban, ostensibly on holiday, but in fact to sign up on a South African Railways and Harbors vessel as Second Radio Operator. The deception was necessary, as our mother would never have agreed to let him go to sea.
He went on to serve as First Radio Operator on various cargo ships throughout the war. He was on the S.S.Agulhas when it was torpedoed and sunk some 300 miles off the coast of South Africa.
After the war he returned to Randfontein for a while, but then the call came for volunteers for Israel’s War of Liberation in 1948. Arriving in Israel by air on September 24th, 1948, he joined the Israel Air Force Air Transport Command, which was mostly engaged on missions bringing arms and ammunition into Israel from Czechoslovakia.
He returned to Randfontein in 1950, and opened a radio repair and sales business. The years had affected his health, and he was never strong. By following a strict diet, he managed to cope with a badly damaged system. His ill health finally caught up with him on October 24th, 1964, when he died at the Johannesburg General Hospital.