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The War of a Hundred Days – James Ambrose Brown
South Africans at War #1

There are few today, even in military circles, who realize or appreciate the part played by South African forces in wrestling the East African Colonies from the grasp of the Italian Empire and the restoration of the Emperor Haile Selassie to his throne in Addis Ababa.

In April 1941 the South Africans had more than 43000 fighting men on land and in the air in Abyssinia. Its war effort against the Fascist-Nazi combination was so outstanding that thought the beginning of World War II in September 1939 caught South Africa unarmed and out of reach of supplies from Britain, it provided first-class motorised infantry, the bulk of the artillery and all of the bomber and fighter strength for the East African Campaign.

South Africa supplied engineering, medical services and equipment as well as transport to the other Imperial forces with whom its men fought in the re-conquest of Abyssinia, Somaliland and Eritrea.

This book is an account of how it was fought by volunteers and the high mood of enthusiasm and valour with which it was prosecuted by young officers and men barely out of high school. The Springboks were led by a corps of professionals of the South African Defence Force with Field Marshal Jan Smuts as Commander-in-Chief.

This was a South African “blitzkrieg”, fought through some of the world’s worst deserts and over mountains up to 12000 feet against an enemy who frequently resisted stoutly and suffered heavy losses in men and matériel.