Union Defense Force

	Union Defense Force ; Unie-Verdedigingsmag;
guide
Commander in Chief :	Prime Minister of ; the Union of South Africa
Military Commander:	Commandant-General
Headquarters:	Pretoria
Military strength
Active soldiers:
Conscription:	Yes
Eligibility for military service:	17-60
history
Founding:	1913
Replacement:	October 30, 1958

Badge of the 1st South African Infantry Brigade, worn during World War I.

South African Navy base in Simonstown

The Union Defense Force (UDF; Afrikaans Unie-Verdedigingsmag ; German "Defense Force of the Union") were the South African armed forces from 1913 to October 31, 1958. They then continued to work as the South African Defense Force .

history

Prehistory, foundation and First World War

In 1910 the South African Union was founded by amalgamating the Cape Colony , the Orange Free State , Natals and Transvaals . In the Defense Act (No 13) in 1912, on the initiative of Defense Minister Jan Smuts , it was decided to merge the three existing armies of the provinces - the Cape Colonial Forces , the Natal Colonial Forces and the Transvaal Volunteers - to form the Union Defense Force . It consisted mainly of the Permanent Force (which initially consisted of around 2500 professional soldiers) and the Citizen Force. After the end of the Second Boer War in 1901, the British and Boer populations were enemies. In the beginning there were about the same number of officers from both groups in the UDF. Smuts emphasized that the UDF could be used “inside and outside the South African Union”.

In the First World War and troops of the UDF were involved. In 1915, 43,000 soldiers marched into the German colony of German South West Africa ; in July 1915 the German troops capitulated . Volunteers fought on the side of British troops in Egypt , German East Africa , France , Belgium , Germany and Palestine . Many of the 3,000 South African soldiers died in a battle in the Bois d'Elville forest near Longueval on the Somme ; only 768 soldiers were uninjured. The then South African President Pieter Willem Botha inaugurated a memorial and museum there in 1986 that commemorates the battle. In 1917 the troop transport Mendi sank en route from the United Kingdom to France; 646 people died, most of them South African soldiers. In total, at least 7,000 South Africans died in the First World War. In addition to white South Africans, blacks, coloreds and “Asians” also fought in the UDF troops.

Between the world wars

After the First World War, the UDF was used to break up rebellions against the South African occupation in South West Africa (now Namibia ). Around 100,000 men formed the National Riflemen's Reserve in South Africa , where they received weapons and training units.

The South African Air Force was founded in 1920 and the South African Naval Service in 1922 . The ships came from stocks of the British Royal Navy , the naval base was set up in Simonstown . In 1933 Oswald Pirow became the new defense minister. In 1934 he restructured the UDF. So he returned the warships to the Royal Navy. In 1940 the Navy was re-established as the Seaward Defense Force . Together with the South African Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve , it was merged to form the South African Naval Forces (SANF) in 1942 . In 1951 the SANF was renamed the South African Navy .

In mid-1935, Defense Minister Pirow had a squadron with tear gas bombs flown to Northern Rhodesia to combat the Copperbelt strike there .

Participation in World War II, aftermath

With a narrow majority, against the resistance of many Boers , the parliament of the South African Union decided on September 5, 1939, to join the Second War on the side of the Allies . As a result, the Boer, war-rejecting wing split from the ruling United National South African Party and formed the Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP) with the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party . The South African troops were mainly deployed in North Africa and Italy in the fight against Italy and the German Wehrmacht . 334,000 South Africans volunteered in the war attended, including about a third of blacks, coloreds and "Asians." Volunteers wore a red tab ( "red collar tabs ") on the uniform. In May 1942 UDF soldiers at Tobruk were subject to the Wehrmacht under Erwin Rommel . From 1942 to 1943 a unit of the UDF took part in the invasion of Madagascar alongside British troops . 6,840 South Africans died in World War II. The red tab was after the war as a badge of courage. Many Boer officers, including the later SADF commander Hiemstra, had not taken part in the war. After the change of power in 1948, wearing red tabs was banned.

After the Second World War, rapid demobilization began . As a result, there was a shortage economy and rising taxes. The dissatisfaction of many former combatants, especially the Boers , contributed to the HNP's victory in the 1948 parliamentary elections. As a result, institutionalized apartheid was introduced. Conscription was extended, compliance with it more strictly controlled, and the Defense Rifle Associations dissolved. Many British officers were dismissed and replaced by Boers, some of whom were inexperienced. The Cape Corps, a unit of Coloreds, was declared part of the Permanent Forces in 1947 , and two years later it was demoted to an auxiliary force.

South African pilots took part in the Berlin Airlift from 1948 as members of the British Royal Air Force and from 1950 in the United States Air Force with a mandate from the UN in the Korean War.

On November 1, 1958, the UDF was re-established as the South African Defense Force ; the new name was 1957 in Defense Act No. 44 has been established.

Role inside

Like the subsequent South African Defense Force , the UDF played a major role in counterinsurgency . The Citizen Force was used to suppress strikes in 1913 and 1914. In the great strike on the Witwatersrand of 1922, which mainly affected the white miners, the UDF played a decisive role in bringing it to a bloody end. In the course of these events, and as part of its military response to the industrial action, the government deployed a Whippet- type tank previously purchased from the British Army. This operation is said to represent the first use of an armored vehicle by South African agencies. The South African armed forces put an end to the largest labor strike in the country by bombing the strikers' headquarters in the Fordsburg district of Johannesburg.

organization

Prime Minister Jan Smuts in uniform as Field Marshal

The respective Prime Minister was the Commander-in-Chief .

The Union Defense Force consisted of the Permanent Force, which was formed by professional soldiers , the Active Citizen Force, in which conscripts and volunteers were united, and a cadet organization . Military service was the responsibility of all white men between the ages of 17 and 60. But not all conscripts were called up for military service. About half of the 17-25 year olds did military service. The other half became members of the Rifle Associations. Coloreds could serve as volunteers in the UDF. They had their own associations.

Union Defense Force commanders

1922-1933: Andries Brink
1933–1949: Pierre van Rynefeld
1949–1950: Leonard Beyers
1950–1956: Christiaan du Toit
1956–1958: Hendrik Klopper
September 25, 1958 - October 31, 1958: Stephen Melville (then SADF commander until 1960)

staff

The UDF consisted mainly of whites, but there were soldiers from other population groups who formed their own associations. The Cape Corps, in which only coloreds served, looked back on a long tradition from the time of the Cape Colony.