“Contact at Bardia”: The Baptism of Fire of the Men of the 2nd South African Infantry Division, 31 December 1941 – 1 January 1942

Following the German invasion of Poland on 3rd September 1939, the South African government declared war on Germany three days later after a tumulus vote in parliament. The new South African Prime Minister, General Jan Smuts, knew that national conscription of citizens into the Union Defence Force of South Africa would be impossible due to the countries complicated past with Britain which had resulted in many citizens either favouring neutrality or openly supporting Germany. Consequently, and rather uniquely, South Africa was therefore forced to field completely volunteer based formations. One of these volunteer formations was the 2nd South African Infantry Division. Established on 23rd October 1940, the division’s men would spend a year in South Africa training and preparing before being sent to the deserts of North Africa. After six months of further desert training, at the tail end of Operation Crusader, the men of the division would finally experience their first taste of combat, when they were ordered to assault and capture the Libyan port of Bardia, which was defended by a combined Italo-German force under the leadership of German Major General Artur Schmitt. This South African close encounter in war experience, derived from both private diaries, letters and reports, supplemented by official South African Department of Defence Documentation Centre (Military Archives) documents, is the focus of this research.