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Department of Military History
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When history no longer suffice : towards uniform rules for armed conflicts
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2017)The key instruments of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols of 1977, divides armed conflict into two legal categories: international armed conflicts (IAC) or ...
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Military Law practitioners and academic discourse : a Sine Qua Non for developing military law
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2017)There has been limited development in South African military law since the inception of the Union Defence Force in 1912. Military law has mainly evolved as a way to enforce discipline in a force consisting of mostly ...
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A critical analysis of the impact of water on the South African campaign in German South West Africa, 1914-1915
(Historical Association of South Africa, 2016)The South African campaign in German South West Africa (GSWA) during the First World War depended largely on the access, availability and control of all water sources in the operational area. The Union Defence Force (UDF) ...
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A cold relationship: United States foreign policy towards South Africa, 1960 – 1990
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12)ENGLISH SUMMARY: The diplomatic relations between the United States (USA) and South Africa (SA) had its birth in 1799 with the establishing of a consulate in Cape Town. Over the next two centuries the political dealings ...
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South African defence in the age of total war, 1900–1940
(Historical Association of South Africa, 2015-05)Based largely on a study of official archives and private papers held in South Africa and the United Kingdom, this article sketches the political-strategic landscape on which the armed forces of South Africa operated between ...
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Managing morale on the battlefield : a psychological perspective
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2015)From historical writings to current day, morale has always been regarded as a major determinant of success on the battlefield. The management of morale is thus also important in the South African National Defence Force ...
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Battle on the Lomba, 1987 the day a South African armoured battalion shattred Angola’s last mechanised offensive : a crew commander’s account
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2015)Writing about the Namibian Border War and South African involvement in the Angolan Civil War is difficult. Many South Africans have been conscripted or willingly served in the military at the time and find it difficult to ...
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Two perspectives on the recent war in Iraq
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2015)The three books discussed here can all be classified as memoirs or even as auto-ethnographies. The two authors relate how they experienced the recent armed conflict in Iraq. The narratives of both authors include detailed ...
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Last night I dreamed of peace : an extraordinary diary of courage from the Vietnam War
(Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2014)Many people’s view about war and its impact was changed by a woman named Dang Thuy Tram. Her diaries, which she kept as a practicing medical doctor during the Vietnam War, were published some forty odd years after her ...
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Sidi Rezegh and Tobruk : two South African military disasters revisited 1941-1942
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-12)ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sidi Rezegh and Tobruk are the largest disasters suffered by South Africa in its military history. Yet, despite their enormity, Sidi Rezegh and Tobruk are little understood and hardly remembered. South ...
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Fighting Springboks : C Company, Royal Natal carbineers : from Premier Mine to Po Valley, 1939 - 1945
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12)ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Germany’s declaration of war on Poland on 1 September 1939 and the consequent war in Europe not only found the Union of South Africa politically divided but militarily unprepared to fight a modern war let ...
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Changing attitudes among South African prisoners of war towards their Italian captors during World War II, 1942-1943
(Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2012)The Battle of Sidi Rezegh in November 1941 and the fall of Tobruk in June 1942 were disastrous for South Africa. At Sidi Rezegh, the entire 5th South African Infantry Brigade was lost and at Tobruk the following year more ...
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Between history, amnesia and selective memory : the South African armed forces, a century's perspective
(Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2012)2012 has a double significance for this year sees the centenary of the founding of the African National Congress (8 January) and of the creation of the Union Defence Forces (1 July), two organisations that have for much ...
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All splendid, but horrible : the politics of South Africa's second "Little Bit" and the war on the western front, 1915-1918
(Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2012)South Africa’s decision to enter the First World War was not easy. After a difficult interplay between Whitehall and Tuinhuis, the Botha government agreed to secure limited strategic objectives in neighbouring German South ...
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Accolades and albatrosses : the South African National Defence Force's centenary and the commemoration of milestones in South African military history
(Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2012)Peoples, societies, institutions and other entities frequently record their histories in terms of successive epochs, and commemorate those histories according to perceived milestones or turning points in their development. ...
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The suppression of internal unrest in South West Africa (Namibia) 1921-1933
(Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2012)In 1915, the Union of South Africa was requested to administrate South West Africa (SWA) (today Namibia) on behalf of the British Crown and approved the South West Africa Mandate. The policies of the Union strongly ...
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Militêre professionalisme en die onderrig van Krygsgeskiedenis in die Suid-Afrikaanse Nasionale Weermag : 'n historiese perspektief
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 1997)From an occupational point of view, the study of military history serves three main purposes. Firstly, military history is used in a practical or utilitarian fashion to foster esprit de corps or to derive military lessons ...
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An Australian war correspondent in Ladysmith : the siege report of Donald Macdonald of the Melbourne Argus
(Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, 2000)Some one hundred years ago, South Africa was torn apart by the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). To mark this cataclysmic event, Covos-Day is publishing a series of books. The first is a facsimile of Donald Macdonald's ...
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Pursuing human security in Africa through developmental peace missions : ambitious construct or feasible ideal?
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2009)Pursuing human security through Developmental Peace Missions: Ambitious construct or feasible ideal? appears at a time when the continent of Africa is wrought by conflict, internal unrest and not-so-civil war, compelling ...
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Bambatha at Mpanza : the making of a rebel
(Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, 2004)Bambatha is widely known as the chief who led a group of men to confront the Natal colonial government in protest against poll tax. He lived in a broken, sandy and stoney area known as Mpanza valley, to the north of Greytown, ...
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A breakdown of civil-military relations : the Soviet coup of 1991
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 1999)In August 1991 a Committee for State Emergencies, consisting of the minister of defence and the chief of the KGB, ousted Mikhail Gorbachev from power in the Soviet Union. The coup was important for several reasons. The ...
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Russia's Heroes 1941-45/Albert Axell
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2011)It is seldom that one comes across a work where history-writing and qualitative research meet succinctly. Add to this an author who communicates crisply and relates real-life narratives that capture and hold the reader’s ...
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Akademiese steun by die militere akademie : die aanspreek van andershede in die SA Weermag
(Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch University, 1992)Die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap is blootgestel aan snelle veranderinge wat noodwendig 'n neerslag vind in die SA Weermag en die Militêre Akademie op Saldanha. Dit is egter nie net die veranderinge wat hul invloed laat geld ...
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The secret South African project team : building strike craft in Israel, 1975-79
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2004)Though the history of the South African Navy (SAN) only dates back to 1922, for most of its history it depended on Britain for warships. The British Royal Navy on the other hand had an unbroken involvement with maritime ...
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The challenges of transformation : SANDF officers' attitudes towards integration, affirmative action. women in combat and language usage.
(Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch University, 1998)Most countries expect their armed forces to be broadly representative of the populace with respect to race, ethnic composition, social class, religion and gender. The concern, particularly with respect to the officer corps ...
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Humanitarian intervention in Africa : towards a new posture
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2004)Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations (UN) implicitly recognises the validity of the concept of non-intervention, when it articulates ‘nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorise the [UN] to intervene ...
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South Africa -- History, Military
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2012)The article presents a review of a book written by Jannie Geldenhuys titled "Ons was daar" (We were there)" published in 2011.
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Civilian-military interaction on the Matie campus : the 'battle of Wilgenhof', 1957
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy), 2009)The South African Military Academy was established in 1950 as a branch of the SA Military College, under the academic auspices of the University of Pretoria. A mere three years later, in 1953, the Union Defence Force ...
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The role and application of the Union Defence Force in the suppression of internal unrest, 1912-1945
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2006-12)ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The use of military force to suppress internal unrest has been an integral part of South African history. The European colonisation of South Africa from 1652 was facilitated by the use of force. Boer ...
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Life in a South African household, 1909 - 1923 : changing patterns in leisure and servitude
(Taylor & Francis; UNISA Press, 2011-06)Domestic history in South Africa is largely an unploughed field. Yet, for much of South Africa’s past, households were the places where concerns about class, gender and race intersected, at a very close, personal, level. ...
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