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20 Battles
Favouring manoeuvre over attrition and often punching above their weight, South African soldiers have become known for their tenacity, dash and ability to defy the odds. Their unique directive command style has also helped them to excel in defining battles and operations, from the campaign in German South West Africa in 1915 to the cross-border operations in Angola during the Border War. In 20 Battles, military historians Evert Kleynhans and David Brock Katz investigate the evolution of South Africa's armed forces over a century from 1913 to 2013. They track the evolution of the doctrine and structure of the defence force, uncovering historical continuity and the lessons learned from past ba...
General Jan Smuts and his First World War in Africa, 1914–1917
A new assessment of Jan Smuts’s military leadership through examination of his World War I campaigning, demonstrating that he was a gifted general, conversant with the craft of maneuver warfare, and a command style steeped in the experiences of his time as a Boer general. World War I ushered in a renewed scramble for Africa. At its helm, Jan Smuts grabbed the opportunity to realize his ambition of a Greater South Africa. He set his sights upon the vast German colonies of South-West Africa and East Africa – the demise of which would end the Kaiser’s grandiose schemes for Mittelafrika. As part of his strategy to shift South Africa’s borders inexorably northward, Smuts even cast an eye ...
General Jan Smuts and His Great War in Africa 1914-1917
A new assessment of Jan Smuts's military leadership through examination of his World War I campaigning, demonstrating that he was a gifted general, conversant with the craft of manoeuvre warfare, and a command style steeped in the experiences of his time as a Boer general.
General Jan Smuts And his First World War in Africa (1914-19-17)
'An engaging, well-written and meticulously researched military biography ...' – Tim Stapleton, Professor, Department of History, University of Calgary Jan Smuts grabbed the opportunity to realise his ambition of a Greater South Africa when the First World War ushered in a final scramble for Africa. He set his sights firmly northward upon the German colonies of South West Africa and East Africa. Smuts's abilities as a general have been much denigrated by his contemporaries and later historians, but he was no armchair soldier. He first learned his soldier's craft under General Koos de la Rey and General Louis Botha during the South African War (1899−1902). He emerged from that conflict im...
David Katz
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Blood Brothers
On 10 June 1980, during the Border War, the SADF's 61 Mechanised Battalion Group attacked a complex of Swapo military bases in southern Angola. A long day of bloody fighting ensued. Second Lieutenant Paul Louw led Platoon 1, in four Ratel infantry fighting vehicles, to an objective called Smokeshell. After emerging from a dry riverbed, the young national servicemen suddenly found themselves facing a heavily defended enemy position and under deadly fire. In the ensuing chaos of that day, 12 troopies of Louw's platoon of 44 were killed and he himself was wounded. The 18-year-old HP Ferreira was shot through the pelvis by a 14,5 mm anti-aircraft round and also hit by AK-47 bullets. He miraculously survived. Blood Brothers records the dramatic events of that horrific day, in the words of the survivors of the battle, and follows members of Louw's platoon on their long journey of healing and recovery. It investigates the human cost of war after the last shots have been fired and follows the veterans as they return to the battleground four decades later in search of peace.
How to Fight a War
Has any war in history gone according to plan? Monarchs, dictators and elected leaders alike have a dismal record on military decision-making, from over-ambitious goals to disregarding intelligence, terrain, or enemy capabilities. This not only costs the lives of civilians, the enemy and one's own soldiers, but also fails to achieve geopolitical objectives, and usually lays the seeds for more wars down the line. Conflict scholar and former soldier, Mike Martin, takes the reader through the hard logic of fighting a conclusive interstate war that solves geopolitical problems and reduces future conflict. In cool and precise prose, he outlines how to orchestrate military forces, from infantry to information, and from strategy to tactics. How to Fight a War explores the unavoidable, yet seemingly elusive, art of using violence to force your enemies to do what you want. It offers an indispensable guide to understanding modern warfare, especially the decisions made by politicians and generals – both good and bad.
Media Events
Science as well. Finally, all those who were mesmerized by the Thomas/Hill hearings, the Gulf War coverage, and other recent media events will find it enlightening and instructive.
South Africans versus Rommel
After bitter debate, South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire at the time, declared war on Germany five days after the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Thrust by the British into the campaign against Erwin Rommel’s German Afrika Korps in North Africa, the South Africans fought a see-saw war of defeats followed by successes, culminating in the Battle of El Alamein, where South African soldiers made a significant contribution to halting the Desert Fox’s advance into Egypt. This is the story of an army committed somewhat reluctantly to a war it didn’t fully support, ill-prepared for the battles it was tasked with fighting, and sent into action on the orders of its senior alliance partner. At its heart, however, this is the story of men at war.
