'We were damn near bomb happy the lot of us'; this note in an artillery man's diary stands in stark contrast to an officer's advice to his mother; 'the only thing for any of us to do now is to try & keep a stiff upper lip.' These two men were both South African and, like all other servicemen and women in the fledgling Union Defence Force, they volunteered their services when the Second World War began in 1939. Fighting in East Africa, then North Africa and ultimately in the Italian Campaign, the South African contribution to the war was small compared to that of Allies such as the USA and Britain, yet on the battlefront and on the home front, many South Africans made personal sacrifices that were as difficult to bear as that of any other nation's recruits. Based on previously unseen letters, diaries, memoirs and interviews, along with almost 50 new photographs, My War tells of the war-time experiences of twelve ordinary men and women who gave up their time, and sometimes their lives, to fight fascism along with Britain and its allies. My War offers insight into a small country's big contribution to a global war. AUTHOR: Karen Horn is a war and society historian who works on lived experience of men and women. She is the author of In Enemy Hands South Africa's POWs in WWII and Prisoners of Jan Smuts Italian Prisoners of War in South Africa in WWII. She regularly publishes scholarly articles in national and international journals, and presents papers various conferences. She holds a C2 rating from the National Research Foundation of South Africa and is a research fellow at the International Studies Group of the University of the Free State, and at the Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch University. 50 b/w photos, 3 colour maps
