General Jan Smuts And His First World War

Jan Smuts’s abilities as a general have been much denigrated by modern historians. However, he was no armchair soldier – the statesman courageously led his men into battle. During the South African War, he was immersed in the Boer manoeuvre doctrine, which he used to devastating effect in the guerrilla phase of that conflict – leading his commando in a daring invasion of the Cape.

The First World War ushered in a renewed scramble for Africa. Smuts grabbed the opportunity to realise his ambition of a Greater South Africa. He led the southern defensive and was an integral part of the German South West African campaign in 1915. In command of the Allied forces in East Africa in 1916, he led a combination of South Africans and imperial troops against the legendary Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Schutztruppen to great effect. His penchant for manoeuvre warfare remains an enigma.

Katz makes use of multiple archival sources and many of the official accounts of the participants to provide a long-overdue reassessment of Smuts’s generalship and his role in furthering the strategic aims of South Africa and the British Empire in Africa during the First World War.