South Africa found itself in a similar position as Canada during World War II. Empire required participation against Germany in 1939. Yet like Canada, there was a strong feeling against getting involved. Unlike Canada see https://the-philatelist.com/2017/12/27/canada-supports-the-war-except-quebec-and-churchill-just-ignores/ , the government was changed to support, and large numbers of South Africans served alongside Britain with distinction. Even if that meant internment camps at home for the opposing Ossewabrandwag. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp issue is a fairly typical support the troops war issue. The stamps did not convince all. Hardline anti war elements among Boers even took to harassing troop volunteers in uniform, in one instance causing a riot in Johannesburg in 1941. This division does not show on the stamps as the new government was all in on the war effort.
Todays stamp is issue A25, a half penny stamp issued by South Africa in 1941. It was a nine stamp issue in various denominations showing various aspects of the war effort, in this case infantry. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
When Germany attacked Poland in 1939, Britain acted upon it’s alliance with Poland and declared war. This required participation by the Empire including self governing dominions like South Africa. South Africa’s Prime Minister Barry Hertzog was a former Boer General and thought that South Africa should stay neutral in the war. There was a fiery debate that saw Hertzog deposed in favor of pro British Jan Smuts who promptly declared was on Germany and Italy. Anti war sentiment then divided between opposers within the system and the soon outlawed Ossewabrandwag that was pro German and went as far as sabotage attacks against the war effort. The Ossewabrandwag was rounded up and sent to internment camps. Among those interned was a future Prime Minister BJ Voster. The new government faced the white voters in 1943 and although they lost Parliamentary seats, Smuts was retained as Prime Minister.
334,000 South Africans, two thirds white, volunteered for war service. There was no conscription. 11,000 died in the war. Most prominently two divisions of infantry fought in the western dessert against the Italians and the German Africa Corp under General Erwin Rommel. They were attached to the British Eighth Army. The second South African division was part of the Empire forces that held out in fortress Torbruk in Libya well behind the lines. When Torbruk fell to the Germans in May 1942, the unit went into captivity. The First Infantry division was then pulled back to South Africa and reconstituted into a tank division that fought in the Italian campaign later in the war, attached to the American Fifth Army. It had been planned to form an additional tank division but the Army was short of volunteers. The 77,000 black volunteers were not deployed outside South Africa.
Prime Minister Jan Smuts overtly pro British stance was not popular and he failed when up for election in 1948. The change of party lead to the break with the Commonwealth and the attempt through Apartheid to maintain white minority rule. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/21/south-africa-1966-a-tiny-minority-can-go-it-alone-because-they-have-diamonds-but-do-they/ .
Well my drink is empty and so I will patiently await for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.