THE AXIS AND ALLIED MARITIME OPERATIONS AROUND SOUTHERN AFRICA 1939 1945 - WAR ON SOUTHERN AFRICA SEA

A study of the historiography of the Axis and Allied maritime operations around southern Africa during the Second World War, requires a multidisciplinary approach. The discussion that follows initially addresses the historiographical works from a broad perspective, with a particular focus on sources dealing with the relevant aspects of naval strategy, the naval war, the course of the war, U-boats, intelligence and the war economy. The discussion then narrows its focus to include all the relevant source material specifically dealing with aspects correlating directly to Axis and Allied maritime operations in the South African sphere of influence during the war. These facets include interwar naval development, the naval war, coastal defences and intelligence, as well as general sources. What follows is a brief description of these varied historiographical works.

The historiography on naval strategy, in general, is vast. Several sources, however, deserve specific mention as they form the basis for an understanding of the Axis and Allied maritime strategies employed during the Second World War. These texts provide a detailed discussion on the evolution of naval strategic thought, and are recognised primers in the field of naval history and broader maritime studies. These works served as the foundation for the dissetrtation, particualry in forming a key understanding of naval strategy, naval warfare theory, the wartime application of seapower, as well as critical developments and moments in the naval sphere during the twentieth century. In this respect, the work of Julian Corbett, Paul Kennedy, Greg Kennedy, Alfred Mahan and Ernst King proved most insightful, especially from a strategic point of view.^[1]

Several other works add to the ongoing discussion surrounding the evolution of strategic naval thought. Of particular interest to this dissertation were works that focused on the operational level of naval warfare, with a specific emphasis on the changing nature and extent of naval operations throughout history. The work of Wayne Hughes, Christopher McMahon and Douglas Peifer proved immensely valuable sources to consult in this regard, especially as to their varied discussions on the operational application of seapower.^[2] In addition, the works of Andrew Lambert, E.B. Potter and Chester Nimitz, Geoffrey Till and Frank Uhlig also provide a strong sense of the changing nature of naval warfare and strategic thought.^[3] An article by P.A. Stemmet, ‘Mahan se Teorie van Seemag’,^[4] augments the above discussion from a South African perspective, by using Mahan’s theory of seapower as a cursory lense to investigate the importance of the maritime trade routes traversing the Cape of Good Hope. Stemmet’s analysis is, however, superficial at best. In addition, Francis Carroll’s ‘The First Shot was the Last Straw: The Sinking of the T.S.S. Athenia in September 1939 and British Naval Policy in the Second World War’,^[5] give an insightful account of the changing nature of British naval policy and strategy on the eve of the outbreak of the Second World War. It is regrettable that these sources are largely general and add little to the discussion on the Axis and Allied maritime strategies employed in the waters off southern Africa during the war.

The strategic and historical importance of the maritime trade routes that round the Cape of Good Hope has received scant historiographical attention. There are, however, some sources of merit. An article by C.M. Meyer, ‘From Spices to Oil: Sea Power and the Sea Routes around the Cape’,^[6] discusses the strategic importance of the maritime trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope. The article primarily examines the post-war period, principally against the backdrop of the Cold War. Its contents are noteworthy, especially when read in tandem with B.H. Malyon’s article entitled ‘South African Shipping’.^[7] Malyon gives an interesting account of the state of pre-war shipping in South Africa, especially regarding the strategic value of South African ports which allowed shipping to pass through. In addition, a few texts highlight the strategic importance of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and Mediterranean during the war, which naturally had a bearing on the shipping situation in South African waters. The foremost authors that engaged with this topic include Rashid Khan, Richard Hammond, Joseph Roucek, Simon Ball, Warwick Dörning and R.W. Close.^[8][9][10] 

There are two official history series that deserve attention when discussing the general historiographical sources surrounding the naval war. The first is the three volumes of The War at Sea^[11] produced by Capt RN Stephen Roskill. Roskill was the erstwhile appointed historian of the Royal Navy, and author of the official histories on Britain’s naval contribution to the Second World War. The first two volumes, ‘The Defensive’ and ‘The Period of Balance’, are most informative. They deal with the naval war fought in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans throughout 1941-1943, especially from a staunch British perspective. Roskill discusses the strategic direction of the British war effort, and most notably that of the British Admiralty regarding ASW at great length. As this naturally has a bearing on the South African approach to ASW during the war, these volumes remain an extremely valuable historical source. Roskill had unprecedented and unlimited access to both the official UK war records and the captured German naval records, which adds a certain depth to these works. 

The second series was written by Stanley Woodburn Kirby, a former British army officer who saw service in both world wars. He formed part of a committee that produced five volumes entitled The War against Japan.^[12] The second volume of this series, ‘India’s Most Dangerous Hour’ devotes an entire chapter to the Madagascar campaign. It thus contains a wealth of information on the limited Japanese submarine offensive in the Mozambican channel in June and July 1942.  Next to several South African sources pointed out supra, these volumes help to complete the narrative on the Axis and Allied maritime operations around the South African coast during the war. It is true that these sources are overtly British centric and principally considered with the Allied conduct of the war. They form, however, key texts for any study focusing on the maritime aspect of the Second World War. The two official histories are evidently supplemented by the comprehensive official German history series, Germany and the Second World War. The series is not yet completed, and is mainly available through on-demand prints. Nevertheless, its volumes allow for valuable grist on the nature and course of the German naval war.^[13]

Two personal memoirs of great significance add to the historiography on the overall Axis naval strategy, as well as the nature and course of the war at sea. First and foremost is the personal memoir of Großadmiral Karl Dönitz, Zehn Jahre und Zwanzig Tage.^[14] The account offers an in-depth account of his experiences as the supreme commander of the U-boat Arm of the German Navy for the period 1939-1943, as well as of his later appointment as the commander of the German Navy from 1943 to 1945. This publication offers a unique perspective on the combined Axis naval strategy during the war, with an emphasis on German submarine operations. As the work deals with the operations around the coast of South Africa throughout the war, it is a precious source of consultation. Furthermore, the publication provides an invaluable insight into the combined German-Japanese naval strategy in the Southern Oceans. Dönitz’s memoir remains one of the most important sources on the German submarine operations to date. 

A second personal narrative is that of Großadmiral Erich Raeder, and is entitled Grand Admiral: The Personal Memoirs of the Commander in Chief of the German Navy from 1935 until the final break with Hitler in 1943.^[15] This text offers a valuable insight into the development of the Axis maritime strategy during the interwar period, as well as the initial operational deployments at the start of the Second World War. When read in conjunction with Dönitz’s memoir, Raeder’s work provides the researcher with a clear understanding of the strategic direction, command and control of the German Navy during the war. Keith Bird’s Erich Raeder: Admiral of the Third Reich further supplements these works, by providing a more contemporary analysis of the key role that Erich Raeder played in the spheres of maritime strategy and naval operations during the first years of the Second World War^[16] Moreover, the two personal accounts offer somewhat of an in-depth explanation of the German decision to launch dedicated submarine offensives around the coast of South Africa, and are thus of great importance to this study.

Several general works on the subject of the naval war during the Second World War offer valuable insights into the submarine war, anti-submarine matters, merchant losses and, above all, naval strategy. The general sources consulted place the dissertation into the broad context of the Second World War. The texts consulted include works by amongst other Winston Churchill, Williamson Murray and Allan Millet, Andrew Stewart, Hew Strachan, Martin Thomas, Andrew Boyd, James Neidpath, Marc Milner and Ashley Jackson.^[17] The texts succeed in confirming concurrent military operations that influenced the course and conduct of the maritime war waged off the South African coast.

Of similar interest are several texts pertaining to the strategic importance of ocean convoys in hauling key logistical needs across the globe during the war. The significance of the convoys, as well as their vulnerability to Axis naval operations, are addressed in the works of John Slader, Kevin Smith, the US Navy Department, and  Bernard Brodie amongst other.^[18]

The immense importance of signals intelligence and codebreaking during the war, especially regarding its relation to the conduct of the naval war and ASW in general, is also discussed by various authors. Even though these authors do not concentrate on the naval intelligence war waged in southern Africa specifcally, the works of David Khan, Jürgen Rohwer, Donald Steury, Jock Gardner and Marcus Faulkner proved extremely insightful and served as a basis for understanding the complex realm of signals intelligence and codebreaking during the Second World War.^[19]

A significant number of sources deal directly with the Axis U-boat operations during the war, and while not entirely concerned with the naval operations along the South African coast, provided useful material for research on the topic. The most important works consulted in this regard include those authored by Harold Busch, Holger Herwig, John Keegan, V.E. Tarrant, Theodore Savas, Bob Whinney, Karl Lautenschlager, Stephen Howarth and Derke Law, Eberhard Rossler, John and Chant Batchelor, Mochitsura Hashimoto, Harry Spong, Richard Osborne and Tom Grover, Malcom Llewellyn-Jones and Stephanie Cousineau.^[20] The above works, combined with the texts previously mentioned, offer a clear understanding of the Axis and Allied maritime operations during the war. The combination of the two groups of sources allows for an additional understanding of several strategic and operational factors that underpinned the maritime operations off the southern African coast.

The economic aspect of the war, particularly its relation to the Axis and Allied maritime operations around southern Africa, is of vital importance to this dissertation. The continued operation of the strategic maritime trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope had a direct correlation with both the Allied and South African war economies throughout the war. It has thus been necessary to consult a wide array of historiographical sources. The most prominent sources in this regard are authored by William Hancock and Margaret Gowing, Iain Johnston-White, Stephen Roskill, Richard Leighton and Robert Coakley, Charles Feinstein, Michael Postan, Arthur Lewis and H.S. Perry.²³

Additionally, there are several publications dealing with the African war economy and the broader aspects that affected it. The interrelatedness of the African war economies, particularly those countries in southern Africa reliant on the shipping passing through South African ports, highlights the importance of consulting this wide array of source material. The most relevant sources in this regard are those of Carolyn Brown, Judith Byfield, William Clarence-Smith, Raymond Dumett, Peter Henshaw, Milton Katz, Yolandi Albertyn, William Martin, Alfred Tembo and the Union Office of Census and Statistics.²⁴

The literature review next turns its attention to the narrower ambit of South Africa specific historiographical works. The sources of particular interest are those relating to the Axis and Allied maritime operations around the southern African coast during the war. These varied texts proved integral in the completion of this dissertation. The first set of sources that deserve discussion relates to interwar naval development in South Africa. Those focussing on the establishment of the South African Naval Service (SANS), the Seward Defence Force (SDF) and the South African Naval Forces (SANF) were critical to the study. Three general articles are also noteworthy.

23 W.K. Hancock and M.M. Gowing, History of the Second World War – United Kingdom Civil Series: British War Economy (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1949); I.E. Johnston-White, The British Commonwealth and Victory in the Second World War (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); S.W. Roskill, A Merchant Fleet in War 1939-1945 (London: Collins, 1962); R.M. Leighton and R.W. Coakley, Global Logistics and Strategy, 1940-1943 (Washington: US Army Centre of Military History, 1995); C.H. Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa: Conquest, Discrimination, and Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); M.M. Postan, History of the Second World War – United Kingdom Civil Series: British War Production (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1952); W.A. Lewis, ‘The Inter-Relations of Shipping Freights’ in Economica, 8(29), 1941, pp. 52-76; H.S. Perry, ‘The Wartime Merchant Fleet and Postwar Shipping Requirements’ in The American Economic Review, 36(2), 1946, pp. 520-546.

24 C.A. Brown, ‘African Labor in the Making of World War II’ in J.A. Byfield, C.A. Brown, T. Parsons, and A.A. Sikainga, (eds.), Africa and World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 43-70; J.A. Byfield, ‘Producing for the War’ in J.A. Byfield, C.A. Brown, T. Parsons, and A.A. Sikainga, (eds.), Africa and World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 2442; W.G. Clarence-Smith, ‘Africa’s “Battle for Rubber” in the Second World War’ in J.A. Byfield, C.A. Brown, T. Parsons, and A.A. Sikainga, (eds.), Africa and World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 162-182; R. Dumett, ‘Africa's Strategic Minerals During the Second World War’ in The Journal of African History, 26(4), 1985, pp. 381-408; P.J. Henshaw, ‘Britain, South Africa and the Sterling Area: Gold Production, Capital Investment and Agricultural Markets, 1931-1961’ in The Historical Journal, 39(1), 1996, pp. 197-223; M. Katz, ‘A Case Study in International Organisation’ in Harvard Business Review, 25(1), 1946, pp. 1-20; Y. Albertyn, Upsetting the Applecart: Government and Food Control in the Union of South Africa during World War II c. 1939-1948. Master’s Thesis, Stellenbosch University, 2014; W.G. Martin, ‘The Making of an Industrial South Africa: Trade and Tariffs in the Interwar Period’ in The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 23(1), 1991, pp. 59-85; A. Tembo, ‘Rubber Production in Northern Rhodesia during the Second World War, 1942-1946’ in African Economic History, 41, 2013, pp. 223-255; Union Office of Census and Statistics, Official Yearbook of the Union of South Africa and of Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland, No. 23, 1947 (Government Printer, Pretoria, 1948).

These works incidentally all appeared in the peer-reviewed South African Journal of Military Studies, Scientia Militaria. They are André Wessels’ ‘The South African Navy and its Predecessors, 1910-2010: A Century of Interaction with Commonwealth Navies’,^[21] as well as Thean Potgieter’s ‘Maritime Defence and the South African Navy to the Cancellation of the Simon's Town Agreement’ and ‘Guiding the Seafarers: The South African Hydrographic Office and the Contribution of the Three Proteas’.^[22] Not one of these articles are underpinned by the rigorous trawling of the Department of Defence’s Documentation Centre (DOD Archives) in Pretoria, South Africa, and are thus judged accordingly.

While these three works may have points worth merit, their discussion of the interwar naval developments in South Africa is negligible. In particular, they overlook the deteriorating Anglo-South African naval relations leading up to the formation of the SDF. Several interrelated matters concerning the development of a South African coastal defence system during this period are also omitted.

The publication of Johan Ellis’ ‘Oswald Pirow’s Five-Year Plan for the Reorganisation of the Union Defence Force, 1933-1939’,^[23] provided some insights into the warped reorganisation of the Union Defence Force (UDF) under Oswald Pirow during the 1930s. The article, however, consults limited archival sources and only offers a superficial discussion of the intricacies surrounding the reorganisation of the UDF mainly from a naval point of view.

Prof Deon Visser^†, an erstwhile military historian at the Faculty of Military Science, published two articles between 2007 and 2008. The articles dealt with the reorganisation of the UDF during the interwar period, mainly from a naval point of view. The articles focussed on the so-called ‘Erebus Scheme’. They go some way to highlight both the political and military intricacies at the foundation of interwar Anglo-South African naval relations. These articles, ‘Anglo-South African Relations and the Erebus Scheme, 1936-1939’ and ‘‘Mutiny’ on HMS Erebus, September 1939’,^[24] are a commendable source on the naval development in South Africa leading up to the war. They offer a more in-depth discussion than the occasional drum and trumpet approach of the works mentioned before.

Several texts authored by Ian van der Waag also outdo the works discussed in the last few paragraphs on the interwar naval development in South Africa. His works include ‘The Union Defence Force between the World Wars, 1919-1940’,^[25] ‘The Thin Edge of the Wedge’: Anglo-South African Relations, Dominion Nationalism and the Formation of the Seaward Defence Force in 1939–1940’,^[26] ‘Smuts’s Generals: Towards a First Portrait of the South African High Command, 1912–1948’^[27] and ‘South African defence in the age of total war, 1900–1940’.^[28] These works provided useful subject matter, particularly on the developments of the SDF as well as South Africa’s coastal defences. What sets Van der Waag’s work apart is that it continuously engages with primary archival material located in both South Africa and the UK. He also brings to light a unique understanding of the formative years of the UDF.

The historiographical works relating explicitly to South Africa, were supplemented by Reginald Pound’s Evans of the Broke: A Biography of Admiral Lord Mountevans KCB, DSO, LLD^[29] Sereld Hay’s History of the R.N.V.R. South African Division,^[30] and Kenneth Dimbleby’s Hostilities Only.^[31]

The quantity and quality of the military historical works produced on the South African participation in the Second World War drastically lag behind concurrent international historiographical trends. This is the argument of David Katz in his 2012 article ‘A Case of Arrested Development: The Historiography Relating to South Africa’s Participation in the Second World War’.^[32] He maintains that the nadir in the writing up of the official history of South African participation in the war was ushered in when the Afrikaner Nationalist Party assumed power in 1948.^[33]

Despite this actuality, a number of official and semi-official histories on South Africa’s participation in the Second World War did appear. The Union War Histories Section was tasked with writing the official histories. However, the section was closed down permanently in 1961 after the appearance of only three publications.^[34] These were: Crisis in the Desert (1952),^[35] The Sidi Rezegh Battles, 1941 (1957),^[36] and War in the Southern Oceans, 1939-1945 (1961).^[37] The latter is the first important work that warrants discussion. It was the first official narrative to be published on the SDF and SANF during the Second World War. War in the Southern Oceans primarily offers a large-scale operational study of both the Axis and Allied naval activities around southern Africa during the war. Its value is in its unrivalled account of the Axis maritime operations off the South African coast during the war. The book’s greatest strength is, however, also its greatest weakness because its primary focus is on the German maritime operations.

Some concerns may be raised about War in the Southern Oceans. First, it fails to critically discuss the development of the Allied countermeasures around the South African coastline during the war. The combined operations aimed at combatting the maritime threat around the southern Africa coast are also offered as a mere fait accompli. Second, a detailed appreciation of the German intelligence networks in South Africa and Portuguese East Africa during the war is lacking, principally regarding the involvement of Axis agents in gathering naval intelligence in pursuit of the maritime war off the South African coast. Thirdly, the Union War Histories Section collected a wealth of primary archival material on the Axis and Allied maritime operations around the South African coast, yet only a fraction of this was used in the final publication of War in the Southern Oceans. There is thus a rich collection of mostly untapped primary archival material available to researchers willing to engage with the documentation.

From 1961 the recording of South Africa’s war effort remained rather haphazard. This is because the Nationalist Government, as well as citizen force and ex-servicemen’s associations, all at one point or other undertook projects aimed at resuscitating the memories of South Africa’s participation in the Second World War. This led to the publication of a number of historiographical works, some of which are of dubious quality and often hagiographic in outlook. 

There are also only a few revisionary type scholarly works that have re-examined certain aspects of South Africa’s wartime history, despite the wealth of declassified primary archival documents available to researchers.^[38] Commander H.R. GordonCumming wrote the first draft narrative of the South African Naval Forces during the Second World War, which was completed by December 1950. The manuscript was not published outright, and was instead archived at the DOD Archives. Nonetheless some of Gordon-Cumming’s chapters were included in War in the Southern Oceans. Some of the most important works on the development of the SDF and SANF were, however, excluded from the publication. By December 1967 a shorter version of GordonCumming’s work, which he aptly titled Brief History (Sea), appeared in A Short History of the SA Navy. This work was compiled by A.P. Burgers for the Directorate of Personnel at Naval Headquarters in Pretoria. During the 50 year celebration of the establishment of the South African Navy in 1972, a commemorative publication entitled South Africa’s Navy, The First Fifty Years appeared was produced. It also contained extracts from Gordon-Cumming’s Brief History (Sea). In 1992, some of the unpublished chapters from Gordon-Cumming’s narrative were collated by Mac Bisset and printed in a commemorative issue of the South African military journal Militaria.^[39] This publication coincided with the 70^th celebration of the founding of the SA Navy.

The Advisory Committee on Military History was formed in the late 1960s with the sole purpose of ensuring that the publication programme of the Union War Histories Section would continue.^[40] Following initiatives from some veteran organisations, and run under the leadership of Neil Orpen, the primary aim of the Advisory Committee on Military History was to complete the history of South Africa’s participation in the Second World War. Regrettably, the publications which emanated from this endeavour can at best be classified as semi-official histories. They lack original research and rely too heavily on the unpublished manuscripts of the Union War Histories Section. They therefore add very little to the general body of knowledge on South African participation in the war.^[41] Nine volumes on the South African participation in the war did, moreover, appear between 1968 and 1982.^[42] Jeffrey Grey^† has however argued that “…these volumes were neither as rigorous, as sophisticated nor as authoritative as the three books produced by [the] Union War Histories.”^[43] These volumes are also only be deemed as semi-official histories, and though varying in quality, add to the historiography surrounding the South African participation in the war.

Of these nine volumes, only one contains some valuable material on the Axis and Allied maritime operations around the South African coast during the war. South Africa at War: Military and Industrial Organization and Operations in connection with the conduct of the War, 1939-1945 includes discussions on the South African and Allied countermeasures that were established to combat the threat of the Axis maritime operations in the Southern Oceans In the authors’ acknowledgements, Orpen and Martin categorically state that “The official history of naval operations off the South African coast, War in the Southern Oceans, has been continuously consulted to correlate information… with the common aim of combating the destructive efforts of the enemy at sea.”^[44]

Taking the above quotation into consideration, the general impression is that large tracts of the manuscript are a mere revision of material found in War in the Southern Oceans. The shortcomings of War in the Southern Oceans are thus perpetuated. In fact, at a cursory glance, it becomes rather apparent that the references in the chapters dealing with the Axis maritime operations around the southern African coast are all taken from War in the Southern Oceans. The strength of the publication is that it offers a description of the military and industrial organisation of the South African home front throughout the war. The secondary focus is on the Allied and Axis maritime operations around the coast of South Africa. While Orpen’s and Martin’s approach was anything but original, they did succeed in bringing together some missing aspects on the South African coastal defences and its development throughout the war. The 1991 publication of C.J. Harris’ War at Sea: South African Maritime Operations during World War II,^[45] which formed part of the poorly regarded Ashanti South Africans at War series, unfortunately added no new analysis of the maritime operations around the South African coast during the war. It remains nothing more than a poorly formulated propaganda piece.

It was only in 2008, at the behest of the Naval Heritage Trust of South Africa, that Gordon-Cummings’ Official History of the South African Naval Forces during the Second World War (1939-1945)^[46] was published in its entirety. The complete work, generally referred to as the ‘long history’, was a welcome addition to the historiography on the SANS, SDF and SANF, as well as their development throughout the Second World War.

This publication naturally filled some of the historical gaps created by the War in the Southern Oceans, though the research and analysis surrounding it primarily date back to the late 1940s and early 1950s. The document therefore remains dated and should be interpreted as such. 

Next to War in the Southern Oceans, Gordon Cummings’ manuscript is one of the most complete historical works on the maritime war off southern Africa during the war. The manuscript provides an unrivalled discussion of the development of the South African coastal defences during the war, as well as the formation and expansion of both the SDF and SANF. While one cannot fault Gordon-Cumming’s manuscript from a historical point of view, the subsequent editorial process followed by the Naval Heritage Trust leaves a lot to be desired. The editors seemed to have accepted the manuscript as it was. The editors did not engage with the wealth of unpublished archival material available to researchers at the DOD Archives, thus missing the opportunity to enhance Gordon-Cummings’ text. 

Several other texts have supplemented the afore-mentioned sources on the naval war off southern Africa. The first worth mentioning is Wessels’ ‘South Africa and the War against Japan 1941-1945’ and ‘Die stryd teen Nippon: Suid-Afrika en Japan, 19411945’.^[47] While the former is the original article, the latter is a mere Afrikaans translation of the original. Wessels does, however, engage with an aspect of the South African war effort that has received limited interest. Neither of his articles, however, succeed in placing the limited Japanese submarine offensives of mid-1942 into the larger context of the total Axis maritime operations off southern Africa. The articles have also failed to engage with the wealth of primary archival material available at the DOD Archives. 

In 2008 Jochen Mahncke published a book entitled U-Boats & Spies in Southern Africa: Anecdotes, Legends, Stories.^[48] Mahncke is an avid enthusiast and an amateur historian, and his book is far from a professional publication. He has taken recourse to a number of secondary sources while writing the manuscript, including War in Southern Oceans. His book is also riddled with historical inaccuracies and careless mistakes. As Mahncke’s work is based on anecdotes, legends and stories, his book should thus be judged accordingly. 

The author’s own article, ‘‘Good Hunting’: German Submarine Offensives and South African Countermeasures off the South African Coast during the Second World War, 1942-1945’,^[49] focussed on the German U-boat operations off the South African coast in particular. The article was made possible through the discovery of valuable primary archival material at the DOD Archives, and focusses on the larger Axis maritime operations in these waters . This article also formed the basis for a more in-depth study on the complex and varied nature of the Axis and Allied maritime operations off southern Africa, and has thus led to this dissertation. 

Several general sources have supplemented the available information on the development and functioning of the South African coastal defences during the war. Each of these sources thus complemented the available information found in War in Southern Oceans and Official History of the South African Naval Forces during the Second World War. In some instances, they have added a new layer of discussion on pertinent issues. 

Other general sources deal with the wartime development of radar in South Africa and the work of Special Signal Services in helping to locate U-boats operational off the Union’s coastline. The most noteworthy works are authored by Brian Austin, A.C. Brown, the Documentation Centre, Neville Gomm, Frank Hewitt, Geoffrey Mangin and Sheilah Lloyd, as well as N.A. Stott.^[50]

A number of sources also provide useful background information on the interwar development of coastal artillery and air forces in South Africa, especially Mac Bisset’s ‘Coast Artillery in South Africa’^[51] and Tilman Dedering’s ‘Air Power in South Africa, 1914–1939’.^[52] Any discussion on the wartime development of Saldanha as a safe anchorage for Allied vessels travelling along the extensive South African coast would be incomplete without three particular texts. They are Deon Visser and Fankie Monama’s ‘Black workers, typhoid fever and the construction of the Berg River – Saldanha military water pipeline, 1942 – 1943’,^[53] Jose Burman and Stephen Levin’s The Saldanha Bay Story,^[54] as well as Deon Visser, André Jacobs and Hennie Smit’s ‘Water for Saldanha: War as an Agent of Change’.^[55]

Next, it is of interest to the dissertation to mention a number of texts that fall into the category of intelligence histories. These publications naturally serve as a point of departure for any discussion on the influence of Axis and Allied intelligence communities on the submarine war around the coast of South Africa. They similarly look at the role which right-wing Afrikaner movements played in sabotage attempts and eavesdropping. Regarding the British Intelligence Service and its role and activities during the war, the five volumes of British Intelligence in the Second World War^[56] produced by Harry Hinsley and his colleagues, provide an in-depth account of the British intelligence service throughout the war. Hinsley worked at Bletchley Park during the war, at a senior level, on naval intelligence, and had very full access to the records. Volume four in particular provides valuable information on Anglo-South African cooperation with regard to intelligence gathering and distribution, as well as an analysis of the German intelligence presence and its inner workings in southern Africa. It is far more informative than some of the recent publications on the British intelligence services during the war, despite the fact that a wealth of classified documentation has been declassified since these volumes first appeared.

Several sources have supplemented Hinsley’s work and provided a more detailed description on the intelligence network and organisation in South Africa during the war. The works are Ernst Malherbe’s Never a Dull Moment,^[57] Andries Fokkens’ The Role and Application of the Union Defence Force in The Suppression Of Internal Unrest, 1912 – 1945 and ‘Afrikaner Unrest within South Africa during the Second World War and the measures taken to suppress it’,^[58] and M.C. van Deventer’s ‘Die Ontwikkeling van 'n Militêre Inligtingsvermoë Vir Die Unieverdedigingsmag, 1937-1943’.^[59]