Counterinsurgency in South Africa: the Afrikaner Rebellion, 1914–1915

The entry of the Union of South Africa into the First World War, as well as the subsequent invasion of German South West Africa (GSWA), served as a trigger to the Afrikaner Rebellion. In September 1914 the Union Defence Force (UDF) suffered a major reverse at the Battle of Sandfontein. However, in addition to the German threat, South Africa faced a second, more serious internal threat. The socio-economic realities of early-twentieth-century South Africa, felt most keenly among rural Afrikaners, magnified the rift between the competing interests of Afrikaner nationalists and the Union government loyal to the Crown. The Union’s entry into the war was a step too far for many Nationalist Afrikaners and ultimately precipitated the outbreak of the rebellion. As a result, the operational focus of the UDF shifted to the internal military threat posed by Afrikaner rebel forces. The Afrikaner Rebellion brought about the first counterinsurgency operation of the UDF within the borders of South Africa. By harnessing its operational and tactical mobility, and operating from the central position and along internal lines of communication, the UDF swiftly dealt with the rebel revolt. This article evaluates the counterinsurgency operations conducted by the UDF in suppressing the Afrikaner Rebellion.