A Military History of Modern South Africa by Ian van der Waag

Author:Ian van der Waag
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Africa / General
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2018-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

Military operations in Europe, April 1944 to May 1945

The last major theatre of operations in which South African land forces fought was Italy. Key to the South African role in the campaign was the formation, on 1 February 1943, of the 6th SA Armoured Division – the first-ever South African armoured division – under the command of Major General WH Evered Poole. The division comprised 11th Armoured and 12th Motorised brigades and divisional troops. The 24th Guards Brigade was attached in Italy. Although few knew it at the time, the division had been formed specifically to take part in the planned invasion of Italy and contrived by Smuts to wangle tanks from the British. Moreover, pressed by a shortage of new recruits in the Union, an armoured division would free up valuable personnel for service elsewhere in the South African forces.131

After a few weeks of intensive training at Zonderwater, the division moved to Hay Paddock near Pietermaritzburg in early April to wait for a convoy north. On 18 and 19 April 1943, the division set sail for Egypt. On arrival at Suez, the division was transported to a camp established at Khatatba, some 100 kilometres from Cairo, and for the next twelve months underwent an exhaustive training programme designed to bring its various units to a peak of battle efficiency. The division crossed to Italy in April 1944 and concentrated in the Altamura-Matera-Gravina area, in Apulia. The conditions in Italy were very different from those that 1st and 2nd SA divisions had encountered in North Africa. The 6th would have to operate in mountainous country ideally suited to defensive warfare, and to attack positions manned by a skilful and stubborn enemy. Rain and mud in spring, and snow and intense cold in winter, would impede mobile warfare, while the geography offered little scope for turning movements. This type of war would make heavy demands on all arms, but particularly on the engineers.132

The division remained in the Matera area until late May, when it was ordered forward to Caserta and from there to the battlespace around Monte Cassino, arriving just too late to participate in one of the largest and most decisive battles of the campaign. Here, since January 1944, the US Fifth and British Eighth armies had been trying in vain to capture the German positions around Monte Cassino, an imposing peak in the southern Appenines that dominated access to the Liri Valley, the only viable route to Rome for the Allies. According to South African war correspondent Carel Birkby, Cassino made the earlier battles seem ‘as nursery brawls’.133

The capture of Cassino, following a massive Allied offensive, opened the way to Rome, and the entire 6th SA Armoured Division, with 11th Armoured Brigade leading the way, was ordered forward to assist in the capture of the city. After a rapid advance against relatively light opposition, the South Africans entered Rome on 6 June. The fall of Rome, however, did not by any means signal the end of the fighting in Italy.

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