Prisoner Job Maseko built a bomb from a milk box and sank a German Nazi ship as he worked hard for the enemy in 1942.

Being imprisoned in a Nazi prison was almost the end of the Allied soldiers' fighting during World War II. However, South African soldier Job Maseko made a miracle in 1942, when he sank a German ship with a homemade bomb from a milk carton while still a prisoner.

Job Maseko was a delivery clerk in the town of Springs, near Johannesburg, South Africa when World War II broke out. At that time, indigenous blacks were not allowed to join the South African army (UDF). This policy changed after the Allies needed a large number of troops.

However, racism in South Africa prevented blacks or half-bloods from participating in combat missions, only whites with military training. Despite this restriction, Maseko and 77,000 South African soldiers still volunteered to join the army to fight the Axis.

In early 1942, Maseko became a corporal of the South African Native Army stationed in Tobruk, Libya, where the Nazis surrounded and repeatedly bombarded.

Soldiers like Maseko were originally only equipped with spears for guard duty. However, when the force of German Marshal Erwin Rommel attacked, they were armed with rifles and fought alongside white teammates to defend Tobruk.

On June 21, 1942, Tobruk fell because of strong enemy fire, Maseko and thousands of South African soldiers were taken prisoner. The Germans divided this number of prisoners by race. Whites were transferred to POW camps in Europe, while blacks had to walk through deserts to POWs in Italy, where they became hard labor.

Colored prisoners had only a limited diet of a few dry cracked biscuits and porridge. They also drink very little water, although they have to work in extreme desert conditions.

Major Schroeder, the leader of the POW camp, was very brutal and often tortured prisoners. The guards also took pleasure in beating prisoners. Once marshal Rommel directly inspected the prison and asked Maseko about the state of life. Despite being warned by Schroeder, Maseko honestly told what happened to the prisoners. That led this South African soldier to solitary confinement and torture.

Prisoners often had to do things like loading and unloading supplies from German cargo ships. The defensive process of Tobruk helped Maseko learn how to make homemade bombs and he decided to take revenge.

During one unloading, three prisoners drew the guards' attention to Maseko making bombs in the hold of the ship.

The explosive was made from gunpowder drawn from an empty cartridge, empty milk carton and a slow burning wire. Maseko put it in the middle of the fuel tanks on the cargo ship. He silently sparked before unloading the last load and leaving.

Minutes after Maseko and the others returned to the prison, the bomb and the fuel tanks exploded, causing the freight train to sink into the sea. The Germans could not find the cause of the explosion, so Maseko escaped.

Maseko later escaped from the prison and found her way across the desert to join the Allied forces. Maseko was proposed to receive the Victory Medal, the highest honor of the British armed forces. However, he was only awarded the British Army Medal for his color and racial policy at the time.

The fate of the South African hero is also a tragedy after the war. The sacrifices and difficulties that Maseko and his teammates suffered during the war were not recorded in their home country. He fell into poverty and died from a train collision in 1952. The soldier's feat was only known more than 50 years later.