Victory in Europe

Abstract

<p>FIFTY YEARS AGO, ON 8 May 1945, World War II ended in Europe. The outcome was much as Adolf Hitler had predicted it would be: Western Europe was under the occupation of Anglo-Saxon troops and fell within the American sphere of influence, while Eastern Europe was occupied and dominated by the Soviets. The prewar European powers of France, Britain and Germany lay broken and a new bipolar global political system, dominated by two new superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union - had emerged.</p

A manoeuvre warfare analysis of South Africa’s 1914-1915 German South West African campaign

“…54 Von Heydebreck was succeeded by Major Victor Franke who was subsequently promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.…”

“…The invasion plan was thus changed and improvised to a less efficient one with which Smuts was not entirely satisfied. 61 The restructured invasion plan comprised the amphibious landings of the South African forces at Lüderitz and at Port Nolloth. The military force at Port Nolloth landed on 31 August 1914 and advanced across the Orange River into GSWA via Raman's Drift and Sandfontein.…”

Accolades and Albatrosses: The South African National Defence Force’s Centenary and the Commemoration of Milestones in South African Military History

“…20 Since the early inhabitants of the territory lacked a written tradition and very little oral military history has survived, milestones in pre-colonial South African military history are essentially linked to European incursion. 21 The fact that much of South Africa's colonial and post-colonial military history concerns internal conflict and has predominantly been recorded from a perceived "non-indigenous" (or "non-first-nation") perspective, makes it particularly susceptible to diverging interpretations, claims and vigorous dispute. The SANDF was born within this diverging historical discourse on 27 April 1994, as it was created through the integration of the statutory defence forces of the RSA (SADF) and the formerly so-called independent black homelands (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei), and the non-statutory forces of the African National Congress (MK), the Pan Africanist Congress (APLA) and the KwaZulu-Natal Self Protection Force.…”

Between history, amnesia and selective memory: The South African armed forces, a century’s perspective

“…The SADF employed a professional team of historians intermittently since 1914 and permanently from 1953, and from the 1970s, the SADF made active use of her history in an attempt to counter growing international isolation. 10 The SADF's long history, and her speedy entry and distinguished service in two World Wars and the Korean War, were emphasised. 11 No historian, official or otherwise, has to date produced a comprehensive, systematic, single-volume history of the former SADF.…”