The Springboks in East Africa: The role of 1 SA Survey Company (SAEC) in the East African Campaign of World War II, 1940 -1941

摘要

As a member of the British Commonwealth, South Africa was part of Britain's war effort since September 1939. When Italy entered the War on the side of Germany on 10 June 1940, the Italian territories in East Africa comprised Abyssinia together with Eritrea, now part of Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland, now part of the Somali Democratic Republic. Although pre-war plans did not anticipate that the SA Army would fight outside southern Africa, Italy's involvement in north-east Africa made it inevitable that South African troops would be deployed to the new war frontier. The South African forces (commonly known in the media as "Springboks") played a major role in the fall of Mussolini's East African Empire. The war was fought under extreme physical circumstances, and it was especially the SAEC (South African Engineering Corps) which rendered invaluable services. By 1940 East Africa was still largely unmapped, and one of the SAEC units, 1 SA Survey Company (initially named the1st Field Survey Company), supported by 60 Photographic Squadron of the South Afric an Air Force, mapped large parts of the war zone and provided essential military intelligence. This paper deals with the formation and subsequent deployment of 1 SA Survey Company in Kenya, Abyssinia and Somaliland, as well as the achievements of its var ious sections. The maps which were produced, are analysed against the background of the available source material and prevailing circumstances. Their quality and style compared to contemporary military maps on the same scale issued by the Union Defence Force (UDF) in South Africa during the War.