Masters Degrees (Military History)

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    The Pretoria Highlanders Regiment and the Madagascar Campaign, 1942
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12 ) Matloga, Philemon Moraka; Kleynhans, Evert Philippus ; Monama, F. L.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Sciences. School for Security and Africa Studies. Dept. of Military History.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Imperial Japan’s entry into the Second World War in December 1941, held far-reaching consequences for the Allied war effort as well as for the safety and security of the Union of South Africa. British strategists using the available intelligence at their disposal, calculated that Madagascar might in due course become the target of Japanese aggression. Matters were compounded by the fact that the Vichy French administration of Madagascar was pro-Axis and could possibly allow Japan to establish forward operating bases on the island. A decision was thus taken by the Allies to invade and occupy Madagascar to prevent it falling into Japanese hands. Initially, a British-led expedition, designated Force 121, invaded northern Madagascar at the beginning of May 1942, and occupied Antsirane and the strategic harbour of Diego Suarez without meeting much opposition. Despite these setbacks, the Vichy French administration still occupied large parts of Madagascar and were unwilling to enter into negotiations with the Allies. Thus, it became necessary for the Allies to occupy and garrison the entire island. This course of action required more troops, which resulted in the 7 South African Infantry Brigade, including the Pretoria Highlanders Regiment, being deployed to Madagascar as garrison troops. After a limited Japanese naval attack on Diego Suarez at the end of May 1942, the final decision was taken to occupy the rest of Madagascar and conduct a series of offensive operations in the process against the Vichy French defenders. The subsequent Allied offensive operations were entirely successful and following the signing of an armistice in early November 1942, the Madagascar campaign was concluded. The historiography on the Second World War is immense. When the focus is narrowed down to South Africa’s participation in the war, the mainstay of historical attention remains centred on the major campaigns in which the Union Defence Force was involved – namely to East Africa, North Africa, and Italy. However, the historiography dealing with the Madagascar campaign in general, and the deployment of 7 South African Infantry Brigade and the Pretoria Highlanders Regiment in particular remain limited. This gap in the historiography persists despite the wealth of primary archival material that is available in South Africa and the United Kingdom. This study examines the participation and experience of the Pretoria Highlanders Regiment in the Madagascar campaign during the Second World War, and in doing so addresses an evident gap in South Africa’s military historiography.
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    Gender equality in the South African National Defence Force
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12) Dube, Boitumelo Joyce; Makau, K. L.; Mkhize, M. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Sciences. Dept. of Military History.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Gender equality is a human rights value enshrined in the Constitution of South Africa. This study investigated gender equality in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) by focusing on women in uniform from 2014 to 2020. The research examined how the SANDF interprets national policy documents and legislation on gender equality in order to address and understand gender equality. The reviewed literature suggests that armed forces integrate women into militaries due to national security requirements and as capitulation to social, economic, and political expediency. However, over time, militaries have gradually become more receptive to the recruitment of women. The study examined women’s engagement in influential leadership positions, promotion, and deployment to foreign countries, as well as the utilisation of women by the different arms of service of the SANDF. This study conducted a comprehensive literature review of hard and soft sources such as dissertations, books, and policies related to gender issues. The study adopted a qualitative approach to collect data. The study’s findings revealed that the Department of Defence (DoD) and SANDF are cognisant of transformation issues such as affirmative action and gender equality; however, the presence of women and representation in the SANDF have not translated into gender equality as women account for only 27.85% of the total population of the SANDF. In senior management positions, women account for 23.49%, which is far less than the 50% target set by the organisation. The highest representation of women is in the lower rungs of the ranks (Lieutenant Colonels / Commanders to Privates) and accounts for 56.67% of the total SANDF population. The study concluded that the SANDF has ambitious policies and has made legislative efforts to integrate women into its arms of service; however, the SANDF lacks de jure transformation. After more than 25 years, the SANDF remains a male-dominated organisation. The study recommends that the DOD and SANDF review their current transformation policies to improve the implementation and evaluation of the existing approaches. This action will create a conducive environment for transformation, gender equality, and affirmative action. The government, the DOD, and the SANDF must implement radical change, including adopting best practices inside and outside the military environment, where the demonstration of critical mass is by decision-making power and not just by numbers.
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    The human transformation of the South African Navy between 1957 and 1993
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Steyn, Leon; Van der Waag, Ian; Monama, Fankie; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science. School for Security and Africa Studies: Military History.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African Naval Forces became a permanent arm of the Union Defence Force (UDF) after the Second World War – on 1 April 1946 – and was named the South African Navy from 1 January 1951. Like other military forces of this period, the Navy remained a typical male-dominated organisation for the first decades of its existence. Furthermore, in South Africa, the policy of the National Party government, which came to power in 1948, shaped the permanent force component of the UDF as a White male Afrikaner dominated organisation. Two world wars were however notable deviations in this pattern. In order to solve its dire need for more manpower, African, Coloured and Asian men were recruited to serve in the UDF during both World Wars. Their contribution was significant – during the Second World War alone, 36% of whole-time volunteers were non-White. Gender restrictions were also relaxed as more than 21 000 women were recruited to serve in the UDF during the 1939-45 conflict. Their utilisation was mostly in auxiliary capacity, but their service in uniform nevertheless left an important, post-war, military legacy. The constant need for more “manpower” by the military, in a country that was racially segregated, was at the heart of this dichotomy. “Non-White” soldiers and women were needed by the military during times of conflict; yet were not considered for similar employment during the periods of peace in the inter- and post-war years. The nationalist military build-up of the SADF, which included the rapid expansion of the SA Navy from the late 1950s, again forced the defence authorities to consider suitable alternatives in order to meet the growing demand for manpower. They looked to the marginalised groups who had served, albeit in small numbers, during the world wars. The first group of Coloured soldiers was recruited for the South African Army from 1963 and for the Navy from 1965. Women were recruited for the Permanent Force from 1972 while Indian male recruits first joined in 1974. African men were mostly utilised in the Auxiliary Services of the SADF, but also employment with the SA Army in a permanent capacity from 1975. The first purposeful recruitment of Africans for the Navy however only followed in the early 1990s. This thesis aims to provide a better understanding of these human transformational events that unfolded – in a staged pattern – in the South African Navy amidst and as a result of the changing South African political and strategic landscape between 1957 and 1993. It is as much a history of the South African Navy as it is of the people that served the organisation during this time – and more widely of the political and socio-economic condition of South Africa itself. Previous historical studies on the Navy focussed exclusively on its development as an organisation, its equipment (ships) and naval operations. The Navy’s social history, especially as it relates to the groups under discussion, has been grossly neglected. This thesis therefore examines the enlistment of Coloureds, Indians, women and Africans into the South African Navy and their experience of military service during the period 1957 to 1993. This was a critical time in the history of country, witnessing the rise of the apartheid state and beefing up of the SADF. It investigates the events and circumstances that initiated the decision to recruit and integrate formerly marginalised sectors of the population into the Navy from the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s respectively and using prosopography to analyse their career progression by the early-1990s. The reintroduction of women to the Navy in 1972 and their particular utilisation and specific challenges to integrate into the organisation with emphasis on gender in the military; and the relative late recruitment of Africans to the Navy during the early 1990s, in contrast to the recruitment and appointment of Africans in the Army during the early 1970s comprise the various aspects investigated. The measure and nature of integration and how de-segregation was implemented on board ships and ashore are also examined. This allows a more nuanced understanding of the mutually reciprocal impacts that these appointments had on the service personnel and the organisation as a whole.
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    Challenges experienced by the female senior officers in the SANDF in Gauteng
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Choabi, Motshidisi Martha Salome; Makau, K.L.; Monama, F.L.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science. School for Security and Africa Studies. Military history. Dept. of Military Strategy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The centrality of national law and policy making is considered essential in the restructuring of the military environment. These essential tools assess the extent to which transformation, leadership and equality policies and legislative measures substantively change the climate and culture of the military institution. To keep track on the restructuring of the military environment, it is necessary to map out some of the everyday struggles which may often be marginalised by an overemphasis by national and institutional policymakers for change. A qualitative research approach combined with an explorative, descriptive research design was employed to investigate and describe the phenomenon under study, namely the challenges experienced by senior female officers in the SANDF. Seventeen female senior officers of different Arms of Service (Colonels and Captains) were randomly chosen from a pool of 124 in Gauteng to participate in the study. The reason for sampling seventeen female senior officers is because they were the ones that responded positively to the recruiting emails that were sent out inviting female senior officers to partake in the study. Data was gathered by means of a semi-structured interview schedule which was administered during the individual interviews. The method of interviewing used was face-to-face which later changed to telephonic interviews because of the lockdown resulting from COVID 19. All interviews were transcribed, and the narratives were analysed on two levels. During the first level of analysis, themes were identified and preliminary labelling of meaningful units of data was done. These themes were then labelled to be given meaning so that they could form 27 coding categories. This was followed by a second level of analysis where the coding categories were further refined and reduced to seven pattern categories that were labelled and analysed using the PESTEL-S framework that served as a guide to threats and weaknesses from the narratives of participants to guide the organisation towards success. These categories represent the essential aspects on challenges, sources and causes of female senior officers’ challenges in the SANDF. Key findings of the study centred on the issue that 27 years in democracy the SANDF is still struggling with transformation, hence the cited challenges still experienced by female senior officers in different areas in the military environment. What stood out as overarching challenges were lack of support from leadership and lack of institutional/environmental support that eventually resulted in insufficient psycho-social support experienced by female senior officers. All is good and well on paper, but implementation seems to be hindered by passive resistance from the male counterparts in the organisation. According to MTT Report (2020), Sadie (2014), Richardson (2019) and the MTT Report (2020) concerted effort has to be put on institutions and the government to counter this passive resistance and get the transformation policies implemented in order to curb challenges females are confronted with. This includes passive lack of institutional /organisational support, lack of psycho-social support and lack of women empowerment. In the light of the findings, it is recommended that leadership socio-cognitive defences be addressed so that leadership can understand when women say “nothing for us without us”. This persuasive rhetoric echoes the sentiments of women for the leadership to understand the need to include women when making decisions on matters that affect women.
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    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.