Comments on: Books That Should Exist, But Don’t: The South African Military

By: J. R. Smith

J. R. Smith — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:31:16 +0000

For some James Clavell type writing about South Africa one should read the many books by Wilbur Smith.

By: Craig Heering

Craig Heering — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 23:13:39 +0000

I agree with you,there is a dearth of good books on SA`s military history,particularly on the subject of whats called the ” Border War” from the 60`s to the late `80`s.

Some authors on the subject are Peter Stiff and Willem Steenkamp, but they are thought of as being the “official authors” of the SADF so their objectivity and neutrallity are brought into question as far as I`m concerned.

Regards from Vancouver,Canada
I served in this war in 81 and 82,and trying to find GOOD books or even analysis of this conflict has proved an impossible task.
For an unbiased analysis of this conflict I finally turned to a thesis by a Lt.Colonel in the US Marines,

Some books I have in my collection are by “Ashante Publishing”,in Rivonia,South Africa, and they published a series in the ealy 90`s called …”South Africans at War”, mostly about the II WW and Korean conflicts.

As far as the Anglo Boer War goes, there are a lot of books on this subject,even at your local library.

By: John Dovey

John Dovey — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 07:03:37 +0000

You might be interested in the books that I have published, as well as the ones that are in production. You can see these at my Just Done Website The books include some that are new editions of old books on the SA Military (such as Borderstrike) and some are completely new (such as Three Frigates) There are also a whole lot of new books in production, and you can join my announcements list to be notified when new books are published. If you want to buy them within SA, then order from my site, if from anywhere else, then they are available via Lulu All the best John

By: patrickp

patrickp — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 05:02:57 +0000

Another set of wars that is interesting is the Xhosa wars (1779-1848) between the Xhosa and the Boers then the British.
(By the way, the Xhosa are the ethnic group that has produced most of the ANC leadership. Mandela is a Xhosa clan chief.)
If you want music to go with your reading of Farwell or Pakenham, here is a modern adaptation of an Afrikaans folk song about Koos De La Rey, one of the Boer’s best guerrilla leaders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=429AUoAWQdY

By: mark safranski

mark safranski — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 17:32:30 +0000

The Great Anglo-Boer War by Byron Farwell The Scramble for Africa - Thomas Pakenham Some info on SA, Namibia, Rhodesia -good scholarship.