Smuts’s Generals: Towards a First Portrait of the South African High Command, 1912-1948

Abstract

This paper is the first attempt to analyse the at least 61 men who held general or flag rank in the Union Defence Force (UDF) or served as section heads in the General Staff Section during this period. The difficult politico-strategic environment in which the UDF was established in 1912 is sketched first. A quantitative overview of the men considered in this study is then presented, followed by some multiple career-line analysis from which a number of prosopographical trends are painted. The evidence suggests that the South African general staff was diverse in terms of social background, education, force of origin, and combat experience. It was also far less 'British' than has been previously suggested. Competition, factionalism, and aggressive lobbying brought several upheavals in the corps of South African generals. Political considerations, at key times, counted for more in the selection and promotion lists than did experience and ability.

All just grandiose plans and talk: The destruction of Oswald Pirow’s reputation as Minister of Defence, 1940

“…Smuts maintained his silence, but behind the scenes, he was preparing a counterattack with the assistance of General Collyer who had become his military secretary on 11 September. 76 Collyer, a fierce Smuts loyalist, provided him with a detailed memorandum on the state of the UDF in September 1939. The document, compiled early in 1940, was in effect a charge sheet against Pirow, as Collyer held him responsible for the fact that the UDF was unable to fight an immediate war.…”

Alien Springboks: Foreign Volunteers in South Africa’s Union Defence Force, 1940–1945

“…Its 'imperial connection' with their erstwhile nemesis, Britain, was unacceptable to them, as the Union's white citizens would be 'militarily bound to the Crown'. 38 In addition, the silence of the Act on the definition of 'South Africa' created opportunities for Afrikaner nationalists to interpret its scope narrowly, restricting the defence objectives to the immediate borders of South Africa, not further afield. 39 Hence, some ardent Afrikaner nationalists launched an abortive rebellion against the Union government precisely on the question of supporting Britain and the deployment of the UDF outside South Africa.…”

A Case of Arrested Development: The Historiography Relating to South Africa’s Participation in the Second World War

“…Ian van der Waag has addressed the South African High Command in both World Wars, examining all of sixty-one generals in terms of their social background, education, force of origin, and combat experience together with their so-called "Britishness". 121 Studies of this nature involving South African military leadership have been neglected, unlike the attention this subject receives in the United States. Van der Waag, circumventing a hiatus in the historiography, uses prosopographical techniques to draw "a first portrait" of the high command by taking into account the politico-strategic environment and a quantitative overview of the approximately sixty-one men making up the high command from 1912 to 1948.…”