General Jan Smuts and His First World War in Africa 1914–1917

Abstract

Although Field Marshal Jan Smuts died in 1950, recent years in South Africa have seen a revived interest in his life and achievements. After South Africans have kept from writing military history for decades, the past 20 years have seen various military publications become surprisingly popular. The publication of books on the two World Wars, the Anglo-Boer and Anglo-Zulu Wars and the more recent ‘Border War’ in Namibia and Angola has flourished. The publication of works about Smuts, by, among others, Kobus du Pisani and Richard Steyn, seems to suggest a re-evaluation and a different view of his achievements – even among Afrikaners who grew up in an anti-Smuts atmosphere. David Brock Katz is a prolific and popular writer in this field. A chartered accountant by profession, his interest in warfare was aroused by his being an officer in a Reserve Force regiment, the South African Irish. He was accepted by the Military Academy, a faculty of Stellenbosch University, as an undergraduate student in military history. After some years devoted to part-time academic work, he produced this book as his doctoral dissertation. Thus, unlike most military writers in the field, he is a trained historian. He is a dynamic writer whose intimacy with his subject holds one’s attention throughout the work. Apparently answering a challenge by Bill Nasson, the book begins with a rather substantial load of biographical information before dealing with the subject expressed by its title. This does not detract from Katz’s theme, however. The book fills a gap left in most works about Smuts which say little or nothing about his approach to military command. For that reason alone, it is a welcome contribution to military literature. One should not be discouraged by the book’s bulk – of the 382 pages the text is 260 pages long, the rest containing endnotes and a bibliography that are evidence of wide-ranging and profound research. It is enhanced by 24 maps, several tables and a selection of photographs and illustrations. Katz points out that Smuts’s experiences in the South-West and East African campaigns were radically different from those of the Anglo-Boer War in which he earned his spurs as a formation commander. He does not merely describe Smuts’s battles against the German Protectorate forces – Schutztruppen – in the German territories; he provides interesting and thoughtMilitary History