The Union Defence Force Between the Two World Wars, 1919-1940

Abstract

<p>South Africa was ill prepared for the Second World War. Her war potential was limited and Hitler is reputed to have laughed when the South African declaration came on 6 September 1939. The Permanent and Active Citizen Forces were under strength: the first comprised only 350 officers and some five thousand men. There were a further 122 000 men in the Commandos, of whom only 18 000 were reasonably equipped, and, being rurally based and overwhelmingly Afrikaans, many of these men did not support the war effort. Furthermore, training and training facilities were inadequate, there was a shortage of uniforms and equipment and, like the rest of the British Commonwealth, much of the doctrine had not kept pace with technological developments. This predicament developed over the preceding twenty years.</p> <p>The mechanisation of ground forces and the application of new technology for war contrasted sharply with developments in Europe. Although South Africa had the industrial capacity for the development of armour and mechanised forces, arguments based upon the nature of potential enemy forces, poor infrastructure and terrain inaccessibility combined with government policy and financial stringency resulted in nothing being done. Southern Africa, the focus of South African defence policy, was also thought to be unfavourable for mechanised warfare. Inadequate roads and multifarious geographic features concentrated energy on the development of the air arm for operations in Africa and a system of coastal defences to repel a sea assault, as well as a mix of British and Boer-type infantry supported by field artillery. As a result, an expeditionary force had to be prepared from scratch and the first South Africans to serve in the Second World War only left the country in July 1940. Yet the close relationship between the projected role of the Union Defence Force (UDF) and the low priority given to force maintenance and weapons acquisition has been perceived by few writers.</p

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

“…The budget would increase every subsequent year. 17 And yet, Pirow still did not have the necessary funds to achieve his goals. Even with war clouds gathering in Europe in 1939, the budget for the UDF would be smaller than the one for the police.…”

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

“…43 Hertzog's supporters insisted that South African citizens should not be expected to engage in war service outside the perceived parameters of the Defence Act. 44 However, Smuts became critical of Hertzog's narrow focus. He advocated for a modernised UDF capable of deployment at least 'anywhere in Africa', and for maintaining links with Britain, which was considered essential to the security of South Africa.…”

“…Malan's followers claimed that the UDF did not reflect 'a truly people's national character', and therefore did not warrant support. 47 Hertzog's Minister of Defence, Oswald Pirow, who attempted a five-year military improvement programme, 48 was not effective. His actions were affected by the strict military economy, limited defence objectives and a belief that most white Afrikaans-speakers did not support the UDF because it was designed to fight for Britain.…”

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

“…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. Van der Waag also examined the UDF between the world wars up to 1939, 122 together with Andre Wessels who takes the study further in his article that looks at the first two years of the UDF in the Second World War. 123 Van der Waag has also produced an important and first insight into official South African military historiography by examining official and semi-official publications and highlighting how the political climate has influenced them in a chapter titled "Contested Histories" referred to extensively in this article.…”