You've probably heard of South African airmen, like Sailor Malan, volunteering to fight for
the British Royal Air Force during World War II, but this was by no means South Africa's
sole contribution to the Allied war effort. In fact, not every South African was pro-British,
and some would have fought alongside the Germans if given the opportunity.
In this video, we shed some much-needed light on South Africa's involvement in the Second
World War, and the tremendous bravery and sacrifice of its individual men.
At the start of the war, South Africa—officially the Union of South Africa—was a Dominion of the
British Empire, meaning it was self-governing but still tied to the Crown. South Africa's
Prime Minister was J.B.M. Hertzog, the leader of the National Party, which stood in a union
with the South African Party, headed by Jan Smuts. This joint party was aptly named the United Party.
The thing is, the National Party was anti-British and pro-Afrikaner, with Afrikaners (or Boers)
being the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the early white settlers of the Cape of Good Hope,
most of whom were Dutch, and some German. On the other side of the coin, Smuts's South African
Party was pro-British. With Britain declaring war on Germany on the 3rd of September 1939, you would
be correct to assume South Africa's political environment was more than a little tense.
While South Africa had an obligation to stand with Britain, Prime Minister Hertzog,
being anti-British, decided his best bet was to play the neutrality card. The United Party,
as a whole, wasn't into his decision, and Hertzog was booted out of power by a vote of 80 to 67
on the 4th of September 1939. Two days later, South Africa answered Britain's call to war.
Herzog and his followers quit the United Party and started the Afrikaner Party, which later
merged with the Purified National Party (which had earlier split from the National Party), to become
the National Party once more. Other anti-British, pro-German, and pro-Afrikaner organisations
emerged at this time. The largest was the Ossewabrandwag, which translates to something like
"Oxwagon Sentinel." Led by a South African lawyer by the name of Johannes Van Rensburg,
the Ossewabrandwag grew to include some 300,000 to 350,000 members during the war.
It even included a military wing inspired by the Nazi paramilitary wing the Sturmabteilung or SA.
They were called the Stormjaers, and they operated under the following oath: "If I retreat,
kill me. If I die, avenge me. If I advance, follow me." Despite that oath, the Stormjaers didn't go
to war so much as cause a ruckus in South Africa. Mostly, they undertook sabotage missions, blowing
up powerlines, railroads, and post offices, and cutting telephone and telegraph lines, among other
things. In 1942, an assistant chief-commandant of the Ossewabrandwag, B.J. Vorster, had this to say
about the organisation's political philosophy: "We stand for Christian Nationalism which is
an ally of National Socialism. You can call this antidemocratic principle dictatorship if you wish.
In Italy it is called Fascism, in Germany German National Socialism and in South Africa, Christian
Nationalism." If that name rings a bell, Vorster became the Prime Minister of South Africa in 1966.
Of course, the South African government didn't just stand by and let the Ossewabrandwag
run amok. They arrested and detained thousands of its members until the end of the war,
Vorster among them. When the war was over, the National Party swallowed the Ossewabrandwag
and, in 1948, defeated Smuts and took control of the dominion. So that was roughly what happened
inside South Africa politically, but what about its resource and military contributions?
War's a hungry beast, and South Africa played a significant role in sustaining it.
We'll get to manpower in a bit, but South African raw materials—such as coal, iron,
manganese, platinum, steel, and uranium—were vital to sustaining the Allied war effort.
So were South Africa's heavy engineering industries, railways, and ports. Among the
military vehicles South Africa produced was the Marmon-Herrington Armoured Car, of which they made
5,700 between 1940 and 1944, many for the Brits. South Africa's ports supplied the Allies in the
India–Burma theatre, and British ships also used South Africa as a stepping-stone on the way to the
Suez Canal when the Axis had the Mediterranean Sea on lockdown. Under the Joint Air Training Scheme,
South African Air Force or SAAF and RAF pilots trained in air schools throughout South Africa.
At the start of the war, the SAAF was tiny, but by September 1941,
it boasted some 31,000 personnel. Along with the South African Navy, which was also pretty small,
the SAAF played a significant role in defending South Africa's waters and the Cape Route,
which was a vital shipping route connecting the North Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
Some 10,000 personnel volunteered for the navy throughout the war.
And that's the thing—everyone
who served in South Africa's military was a volunteer; conscription just wasn't a thing
At the start of the war, the South African Army, for instance, had just 5,353 regulars, mostly
trained and equipped for fighting in the bush; this number grew, but in terms of sheer manpower,
South Africa was by no means a top-tier player. Still, South Africans managed to
serve with distinction in a number of engagements in North Africa, East Africa, Madagascar, Italy,
the Balkans, elsewhere in Europe, and, of course, in the skies over Britain against the Luftwaffe.
South Africans were critical to the Allied victory in the East African campaign, for example,
deploying around 27,000 army and air force personnel. By December 1940, 94 aircraft from 10
SAAF squadrons were operating in East Africa against the better-equipped and more experienced
Italian Regia Aeronautica, and still they managed to do more than their fair share of damage.
The SAAF's 1 Squadron, for instance, claimed to have taken out 48 enemy
aircraft and damaged a further 57 during aerial combat, for a loss of just six pilots.
As a second example, the South African Army's 2nd Infantry Division was shoulder to shoulder with
the British when they suffered a crushing defeat in the Axis capture of Tobruk in June 1942. Here,
the Allied defenders at Tobruk, Libya, were surrounded by numerically superior and more
experienced joint German and Italian force and made to bend the knee in a fight for which they
were not prepared. Of the 35,000 Allied troops stationed in Tobruk, 33,000 were taken as POWs;
this number included 10,722 South Africans. Most of them were shipped to POW camps in Italy. Only
188 South Africans, mostly from the Kaffrarian Rifles, managed to avoid capture at Tobruk.
Serving in the Kaffrarian Rifles was a man named Gerard Norton,
who after avoiding capture at Tobruk, went on to earn a Victoria Cross in Italy in August 1944.
The citation read: "Lieutenant Norton was commanding a platoon during the attack on
the Monte Gridolfo feature, one of the strong points of the Gothic Line. The leading platoon
of his Company was pinned down by heavy enemy fire from a valley on the right flank of the advance.
Norton at once engaged a series of emplacements in this valley. Single-handed, he attacked the
first machine gun position with a grenade, killing the crew of three. Still alone, he then worked his
way forward to a second position containing two machine guns and fifteen riflemen. After a fight
lasting ten minutes he wiped out both machine gun nests with his Tommy gun, and killed or
took prisoner the remainder of the enemy. By his supreme gallantry, fearless example and
determined aggression, he assured the successful breach of the Gothic Line at this point."
Norton wasn't the only VC recipient to illustrate the bravery of South African servicemen during the
war, of course. On the night of February 23 1945, South African pilot Ted Swales
gave his life for the Allied cause in his Lancaster bomber following a raid on Germany,
earning his VC posthumously. The citation read: "Captain Swales was 'Master Bomber'
of a force of aircraft which attacked Pforzheim. Soon after he reached the
target area he was engaged by an enemy aircraft and one of his engines was put out of action.
His crippled aircraft was easy prey. Unperturbed, he carried on with his allotted task; clearly
and precisely he issued aiming instructions to the main force. Meanwhile the enemy fighter fired
again. A second engine was put out of action. Almost defenceless, he stayed over the target
area issuing his aiming instructions until he was satisfied that the attack had achieved its
purpose. Realising that the situation was desperate Captain Swales ordered his crew
to bail out. Hardly had the last crew-member jumped when the aircraft plunged to earth.
Captain Swales was found dead at the controls. [He gave] his life that his comrades might live."
All in all, some 334,000 men volunteered to serve in the South African Army throughout the war,
both in combat and unarmed support roles, with the majority of the latter filled by
black South Africans and Indians. Just over 11,000 South Africans paid the ultimate price.
As always, we'd love to know what you think. Did you know that there were a lot of pro-German,
anti-British South Africans in the dominion during World War II? Had you heard about the Stormjaers
and their sabotage operations? Lastly, do you know of any other stories highlighting
South African bravery? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.