SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY EASTERN CAPE BRANCH
SUID-AFRIKAANSE KRYGSHISTORIESE VERENIGING OOS-KAAP TAK

Newsletter No 98 /Nuusbrief Nr 98 November 2012

The open house series, given by John Stevens, was on the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War Battle of Antietam (17th September 1862), known in the Confederacy as the Battle of Sharpsburg. He highlighted the circumstances of the battle and the immense slaughter which took place – the bloodiest day in United States history with 46 000 casualties in total. While the battle itself was tactically inconclusive, it gave President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, which discouraged the British and French governments from possible diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy.

The curtain raiser was presented by Yoland Irwin, who showed a series of slides on her trip to Gallipoli in September 2011 when she had joined a tour to several of the main ANZAC sites on the peninsula. Having briefly outlined the reasons for the Dardanelles Campaign and Turkey’s role within the Central Powers Bloc, she highlighted some of the sites visited. Starting with the town of Eceabat, where there is an educational park on Gallipoli, the tour took them to the ANZAC landing points, trench areas and the cemeteries around that section of Gallipoli. These included the Beach, ANZAC Cove, Shrapnel Valley, Lone Pine and Walkers Ridge cemeteries and the trenches along the ridge up to Chunuk Bair. The tour ended at the Turkish and New Zealand war memorials, with views over the beaches and plains up to Suvla bay. Experiencing just one day in autumn of this hot, dry, thirst inducing part of the world gave one a feeling of empathy for the soldiers who fought there nearly 100 years ago.

This part of Turkey is well worth a visit and it is possible to join a longer tour which spends time looking at all areas of Gallipoli as there is much else to see. Particularly worth a mention is the War Museum in Çanakkale (a ferry’s ride over the Dardanelles) where there is an original WW I mine laying vessel used as a floating museum.

The main lecture, titled ‘The Decision’: The story of a military decision rated by modern historians as the most important ever made in the history of the United States was by John Stevens.

On 8th April 1865 Robert E Lee’s legendary Army of Northern Virginia had come to a grinding halt in its quest to withdraw across Virginia and link up with Joe Johnston’s Army of The Tennessee in a desperate bid to oust Federal forces from the South. At Appomattox Courthouse they were virtually surrounded, having failed to break through General Grant’s superior forces. Lee, exhausted, sick with heart disease and, at 58, old by the standards of the day, summoned his general staff for a final decision. On the face of it they had two choices: either make a last stand or surrender on the most favourable terms which could be negotiated.

It was agreed that a last stand would likely result in further needlessly sacrificed young American lives on both sides, and so was rejected although surrender was considered the ultimate shame and unpopular with the general staff. An alternative option, suggested by Lee’s youngest yet highly respected commander, General Porter Alexander, was that the Army of Northern Virginia should disperse and engage in a guerrilla war, enticing the remaining armies of the Confederacy to do likewise. It was argued that this method of action could eventually force the North into giving the South their prized Independence. Lee, having thought it through, responded in the negative by explaining the chaos, misery and destruction that this would cause to North and South alike. General Alexander saw the wisdom of Lee’s response, and later reminisced how clear the situation was made to him and how Lee’s vision was on an altogether higher plane than his own. The decision was thus made to negotiate for terms of surrender. At their meeting, Grant offered very favourable terms which Lee accepted on 9th April, resulting in one of the most dignified and respectful surrender ceremonies ever encountered in the event of a civil war.

A month previously President Lincoln had met with his top military commanders to deliberate the likely ending of the war and the painless reunification of the Confederate States back into the Union. He urged his commanders to offer favourable terms of surrender to all to achieve a speedy and bloodless end to the war if possible. Grant and Sherman, Lincoln’s two senior army commanders accepted this as they were under no illusions as to the dire consequences associated with guerrilla warfare.

The war was not yet over, however, as three Confederate armies with an estimated 175 000 men still remained in the field. After the assassination of Lincoln on 14th April, it took mature and level-headed leadership on the part of individuals such as Sherman and Grant to bring the war to a conclusion a month after Lee’s surrender.

John then speculated on the likely success of guerrilla warfare had the Confederates gone down that road, and whether the Federal resolve could have withstood this. Modern research indicates a sombre picture. It was feasible that the duration of the war could easily have been lengthened to 15 years or longer, in which case the costs to both sides would have rocketed. Severe measures would have had to be implemented to flush the guerrillas out and subdue a supportive population resulting in misery, death and unspeakable civilian hardships.

As it was, the surrendered South entered a period of slow and bitter reunification known as the Reconstruction Period during which martial law was instituted. The Confederate states were only gradually reincorporated into the Union, the last in the 1880s. It was a difficult period which in some ways was worse to bear than the war that had preceded it. The South had physically been virtually destroyed by the war, and the economy shattered. It took the southern states until the early 1940s to recover financially.

It has been speculated that had guerrilla war erupted and destroyed the economy of the North as well, the period of recovery of the total economy could have taken as long as the mid-1990s. John suggested that one might consider the impact on world affairs thereafter had the United States self-destructed in a prolonged guerrilla war. Could the United States have played the role it did in the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War? Would, or could the United States have become a super power under these circumstances? It is sobering to consider how the world might have looked today if it had not. It all boils down to a fateful decision made in the space of minutes by an old, exhausted and ill man in a moment of extreme duress, one who still had the vision and foresight to understand the impact of guerrilla war on the nation as a whole, and who had the sheer willpower and presence to lead by example and steer the people of the South towards reconciliation under immensely difficult circumstances. This was, he concluded, indeed a momentous decision that could have changed the face of a nation and maybe the world, all in the space of a few fateful minutes.

Future meetings and field trips/ Toekomstige byeenkomste en uitstappe

The next meeting is on Saturday 10th November. Meet at the South African Air Force Museum car park at 09h45 for a guided tour of the museum. This will be followed by the end of year ‘bring and braai’ at the same venue from 12h00 – 14h00. Fires will be provided. Please bring everything else you need. The Museum bar will be open for drinks on own account. After lunch, Pat Irwin will give a brief synopsis of SAMHSEC’s first 100 meetings and 22 field trips/outings. Thereafter Fred Oelschig will present a lecture on Winning the war in Eastern Caprivi. There will be no screening of the ‘World at War’ series this month. The Museum is on the south side of PE Airport. It is signposted from Forest Hill Drive.

The December meeting will be on 10th at the usual venue and, as has become tradition, a film will be shown in lieu of lectures. This will be Oh! What a Lovely War. Fellow member Jonathan Ossher notes that while the title suggests a jolly rollicking show with a frivolous war theme, the film contains a darker, more sombre message about World War I. It satirizes the flimsy rationale behind the Great War and subtly condemns the glorification thereof as well as the resulting slaughter. Sometimes farcical, even bordering on the absurd, the message is brought home by means of symbolism. The story traces the fortunes of members of the Smith family who sign up for what they believe will be a fun-filled war which, as we all know, turned out to be anything but. Students of World War I will recognise several historical events behind the drama, but even the most uninitiated will enjoy the sheer artistry of the production. Among the actors are Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Maggie Smith, Susannah York and John Mills. The director was Richard Attenborough who went on to make the award-winning film Ghandhi in 1982.

The first meeting of 2013 will be on 14th January. The curtain raiser will be on the tapestry at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria by Stephen Bowker. The main lecture will be The Dicken Medal by Tiaan Jacobs. The screening of the ‘World at War’ series will be Genocide (1941–1945).

Matters of general interest / Sake van algemene belang

Individual members’ activities

Malcolm Kinghorn visited the site of the ABW Concentration Camp at Greenpoint and the Cape Garrison Artillery War Memorial at Fort Wynyard. He reports that this memorial is the only one of which he is aware that includes the names of Boer prisoners of war who died in the Anglo-Boer War POW transit camp on the nearby Greenpoint Common, in addition to those of unit members who died on active service.

Drawing on his interest in collecting medals and researching the history of their origins as well as the individuals who received them, Tiaan Jacobs gave a presentation on the Battle of Rorke’s Drift to the Genealogy Society on the 15th October 2012. This included the role of Lieutenant John Rouse Marriot Chard, VC, Royal Engineers, who in 1879 commanded the defence of Rorke’s Drift, and details of the medal and decoration named in his honour.

Notable anniversaries in November /Merkwaardige gedenkdae in Novembe

• Nov 1793 Second Frontier War ends after four years: a complex train of events and alliances.
• 2 Nov 1899 Start of 216-day Siege of Ladysmith during Anglo-Boer War.
• 4 Nov 1862 Richard Gatling patents his rapid-fire machine gun.
• 4 Nov 1942 Start of Axis withdrawal from El Alamein.
• 6 Nov 1952 The first hydrogen bomb explosion totally obliterates the Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
• 7 Nov 1975 South African forces (Task Force Zulu) capture the town of Benguela in Angola during Operation Savannah.
• 7 Nov 1977 The UN imposes an international arms embargo against South Africa, which results in significant growth in the South African armaments industry.
• 8 Nov 1975 South African forces (Task Force Zulu) capture the town of Lobito in Angola during Operation Savannah.
• 9 Nov 1923 Abortive ‘Beer Hall Putsch’ leads to Hitler’s imprisonment.
• 9-10 Nov1938 Nazi Kristallnacht – in retrospect, a ‘storm warning’ of the Holocaust to come.
• 9 Nov 1989 The Berlin Wall, symbol of the Cold War, is torn down by the people of Berlin.
• 10 Nov 1975 South African 140 mm (5.5 inch) medium guns in action for the first time since World War II at Caxito, Angola.
• 11 Nov 1918 The Armistice comes into effect, effectively bringing an end to combat in WW I. The South Africans are at Grandrieu, the easternmost point gained by Allied armies in France.
• 11 Nov 1940 Battle of Taranto. Fairy Swordfish aircraft (aka ‘Stringbags’) launched from HMS Illustrious disable three Italian battleships, two cruisers and some smaller ships with torpedoes and bombs, losing only two out of 21 aircraft engaged. Greater damage was inflicted than that on the German High Seas Fleet at the Battle of Jutland. This event influenced Japanese Admiral Namomato in his advocacy and planning of the attack on Pearl Harbour a year later.
• 13 Nov1942 U-178 sinks three ships off the South African coast.
• 13 Nov 1942 Tobruk re-captured by the 8th Army after falling to the Axis on 21st June.
• 15 Nov 1899 Winston Churchill captured in armoured train incident between Frere and Chieveley, Natal.
• 16 Nov 1941 Following Operation Barbarossa in June, a breakthrough of Russian positions leads to German patrols reaching to within 24 km of central Moscow. It was the closest they got.
• 17 Nov 1941 Abortive SAS raid on German HQ in Libya fails to kill Rommel.
• 18 Nov 1941 Start of Operation Crusader, an offensive by the 8th Army including elements of the South African 1st and 2nd Divisions.
• 16 Nov 1831 Death of Carl von Clausewitz, one of the greatest military theorists of all time.
• 20 Nov 1917 VC earned by (South African) Lt. Col. John Sherwood-Kelly, CMG, DSO, Norfolk Regiment, Commanding 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Marcoing in France. He was later court-martialled for publically criticizing the handling of the BEF in Russia in 1919.
• 20-27 Nov 1917 Battle of Cambrai, France, involving the first large scale use of tanks.
• 20 Nov 1945 Start of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
• 20 Nov 1962 End of the Cuban Missile Crisis. [See Websites of Interest below].
• 22 Nov 1899 Battle of Willow Grange. A minor engagement: most southern point reached by Boer forces During the Anglo-Boer War.
• 23 Nov 1899 Battle of Belmont. A costly British victory in the general retreat of the Boers on the western front.
• 23 Nov 1941 Battle of Sidi Rezegh, Libya. South African 5th Brigade virtually annihilated by tanks of Rommel’s Afrika Korps. The SA Irish [Artillery] Regt. and the 3rd Bn. Transvaal Scottish [Infantry] cease to exist as fighting units for the remainder of the war. South Africa’s worst military defeat.
• 23 Nov 1942 German 6th Army surrounded at Stalingrad.
• 23 Nov 1984 The last Avro Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft is withdrawn from service after nearly 40 years of service by this type of aircraft.
• 25 Nov1941 The British battleship HMS Barham sunk by U-331 off the Libyan coast. Of the 862 lives lost in the resulting explosion, seven were South Africans. The film footage of the ship exploding is unique. [See also SAMHSEC Newsletter No.3].
• 25 Nov 1899 Battle of Graspan/Enslin. A smaller repeat performance of Belmont two days earlier.
• 28 Nov 1899 Battle of Modder River/Tweerivieren. Another costly British victory when Boers withdrew after getting the better of the day-long engagement.
• 28 Nov 1941 Battle of Gondar. Final defeat of Italians in Abyssinia, where the SA 1st Division had had substantial involvement.
• 28 Nov 1975 Evacuation by sea of South African military mission to Holden Roberto’s FNLA, from Ambrizette.
• 30 Nov 1914 Capture of General de Wet north of Kuruman during the 1914 Rebellion against South African participation in WWI.