Browsing by Author "Punt, Carl Heinrich"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The experiences of the infantry of the 12th South African Motorised Brigade in the Italian Campaign of the Second World War
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03 ) Punt, Carl Heinrich; Van der Waag, I. J.; Kleynhans, E. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Sciences. School for Security and Africa Studies. Dept. of Military History.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis analyses and narrates the experiences of the South Africans that served as motorised infantry during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. Using the historical method, secondary sources provided a foundation for the analysis of archival evidence, memoirs, letters, and diaries. The aim of the research was to examine and gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of the men – and they were all men – that served with the 12th South African Motorised Brigade (12th SA Mot Bde) in the Italian Campaign. A ‘bottom-up’ approach is used to provide a so-called ‘grass-roots perspective’. This is therefore primarily a social history. The examination starts with the politico-strategic situation in South Africa at the start of the war: of the political turmoil in South African politics, the decision to enter the conflict, the campaigns of the Second World War in which South Africans fought, and the deployment of the 6th South African Armoured Division (6th SA Div) to Italy in early 1944 –as part of the invading Allied forces. With this background, the 12th SA Mot Bde of the6th SA Div comes into focus. Four focused, thematic chapters follow: on the preparation of the Brigade; on the conduct and experience of battle; on discipline, morale, and misconduct in the Brigade; and on boredom and the rollout of leisure-utilisation programmes. South Africa had to mobilise a volunteer army from scratch. This was no easy task. Volunteers were called for and a government information programme – to counter the anti-war propaganda of the parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition – was launched with emotive appeals to motivate men and women to enlist. Notwithstanding, manpower shortages were experienced throughout the war. The operational deployments to East Africa, Madagascar, and North Africa – the Union Defence Force’s (UDF’s) first campaigns – brought valuable experience. Yet, as this study argues, this experience and the training the infantry of the 6th SA Div received, proved inadequate for the conditions they would face in Italy. This was a campaign of quite a different kind. This ‘experience of battle’ is the leitmotif and opens the discussion on fighting in mountainous terrain and adverse weather, on the methods and tactics used by the enemy, facing enemy armour, and the experience of being bombed, of becoming a casualty, and of the social aspects relating to the non-combative experience of the campaign – such as drinking and sexual behaviour, and the experience of war trauma. As the South African military authorities discovered, the Italian Campaign presented the South African soldier with a unique combat experience and the UDF with its greatest challenges.