THE NAVY THAT ALTEREDCOURSE - ajol.info

"THE NAVY THAT ALTEREDCOURSE"By Captain (SAN) Ivor C. Little*

Introduction

The Republic of South Africa is continually inthe news for one reason or another and mostmembers of the world's naval fraternity havea very good idea of where it is even if theirjudgement as to what sort of a place it is maydiffer. Very few of them however have a clearpicture of what sort of a navy it has and why.The South African Navy is in fact a most un-usual one, having in recent years literallyturned its back on its former blue water navyimage and voluntarily scaled itself down to acoastel defence role - quite the opposite towhat most navies aspire to and a dramaticchange of attitude with far-reaching effects onnaval strategy for the West. In case there arethose who doubt that this last statement is infact so, let us consider a few backgroundfacts.

Origin

The South African Navy of today had its ori-gins in the Natal Naval Volunteers who wereformed in Durban in the then British colony ofNatal on April 30th 1885.They were suprisinglyenough in view of their title a land-based or-ganisation but wore naval uniform and sawaction in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902andthe Zulu Rebellion of 1906. In the Cape ofGood Hope, or Cape Colony,a sister colonyfurther to the South, a similar unit known as theNaval Volunteer Corps was formed in CapeTown on February 7, 1905.With the forming ofthe Union of South Africa in 1910these two unitswere amalgamated into the South African Div-ision of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. In1914this Division was able to make 12officersand 267men available to the BritishAdmiraltyat the outbreak of World War I, and SouthAfricans served at sea with the Royal Navy inall theatres of action.

The Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, or RNVRas it was always known, continued in beingafter the war and in 1934consisted of 800offi-cers and men based in various coastel cities.When World War II broke out there were suffi-cient men in the RNVRto meet the AdmiraltyWar Plan and South Africans once again

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fought world-wide and with distinction in theRoyal Navy.

In the interim however one of those strangelyBritish colonial situations had arisen in thateven though she was still training men for theRoyal Navy, South Africa felt the need for herown separate navy and on Wednesday,January 11th,1922,the South African Naval Ser-vices was born. This is today taken as theSouth African Navy's birthday and makes it 63years old.

The first three ships obtained were deliveredin a bunch. The largest was HM Surveying ShipCROZIER,at that time comparitively new hav-ing being built in 1919.Shewas of 800tons andher 2200 hp gave her a speed of 16knots. Shewas accompanied by two 300 ton Admiraltytrawlers named EDENand FOYLE.These threeships were renamed after flowers, becomingrespectively PROTEA,IMMORTELLEand SON-NEBLOM (sunflower). These names are still inuse in the SA Navy. The fledgling service wasemployed mainly in surveying the 2500 nm ofSouth Africa's coastline and in training theRNVRto fight in someone else's Navy!

World War II

When World War II broke out and the RNVRwent off to war with the British, South Africadeclared war on Nazi Germany on Septem-ber 6th, 1939.The SA Naval Service had lost itsoriginal three ships by now but had two whalecatchers in commission, the SWARTBERGandOOSTEWAL. Nine days later the trawlersBLUFFand DISAwere commissioned as mine-sweepers and before the year ended anotherdozen were commissioned.

On the 15th January 1940 the South AfricanNaval Service changed its name to the Sea-ward Defence Force with 15 ships, 47 officersand 475men. They went off to war in a motleycollection of little ships and soon found thatthey were fighting in a worldwide conflict. On 1August 1942logic prevailed and the SeawardDefence Forde amalgamated with the SouthAfrican RNVRto form the South African Naval

Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 15, Nr 1, 1985. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za

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HMSAS Standerton - World War 11convoy escort - converted whale catcher - South Atlantic Theatre

Forces with 64 anti-submarine and minesweeping vessels. After 1942 the SANF grewby leaps and bounds and consisted of any-thing from frigates to motor launches.

They ranged far and wide. Ships of the SANFsuccessfully intercepted Vichy French convoysrounding the Cape to the then Madagascarand took prizes. They swept up mines laid onthe Agulhas Bank by the German minelayerDOGGERBANK. (One of these mines afterhaving been sunk by gunfire was trawled upagain in 1984and caused a furore when lan-ded by a trawler in the small town of Herma-nus). German, Japanese and Italian subma-rines operated to within 100 kms of Durbanand a merchant ship was sunk only 4,6 kms offthe South African coast. AII-in-aIl132 ships weresunk in South African waters even though con-voys were formed and escorted. In the Medi-terranean they took an active part in mine-sweeping out of Alexandria, and in the Tobrukrun and Gibralter convoys. During one of thelatter HMSA ships PROTEA and SOUTHERNMAID sank the Italian submarine ONDINA bydepth charge and surface gunnery. HMSASPARKTOWN was the last ship out of Tobruk asthe town surrendered to the Germans, fightinga running battle with E-Boats on the way out

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before being crippled and sunk. A short whilelater HMSAS GAMTOOS was the first alliedship into Tripoli after its capture by the allies.By nature of her role as a salvage ship shewas also first into Marseilles and La Ciotat.

Moving up into the North Atlantic, HMSASNATAL sunk the German submarine U714off StAbbs Head only fourteen days after her com-missioning and whilst still on trials. At the war'send there were South African ships at Singa-pore and in the Aegean where they promptlygot involved in the Greek civil war. The lastships finally came home three months after theend of the war. Eighty-nine ships had beeninvolved and gained 128 battle honours.Some 10332 men had gone to the war at sea(1436 officers and 8896 ratings) of whom 3000served with the Royal Navy. Five ships hadbeen lost, four in action and one by groundingand 223 British awards and decorations hadbeen gained by the men.

Aftermath

Now, one may ask, why this encapsulatedhistory in an article of this sort purporting tosay the the West has lost a strategic ally? The


answer is simple. The SANF at the end ofWorld War II was a battle tried, combat tes-ted, blue water navy capable of all fields ofnaval endeavour anywhere in the world. Atthe end of that conflict it was, like all otherAllied navies, wound down to 17ships as menwere demobilised and countries reverted topeace-time naval routine. However the forcethat remained was a highly professional one.The Allies, as they were then called, had there-fore a highly Westernised and motivatedNATO type Navy sitting astride one of theWorlds great trading links, the Cape SeaRoute. The value of this force was emphasisedwhen in 1948it made several forays down intothe sub-Antarctic and annexed the unclaimed

island in the roaring forties to prevent intrusioninto the area by other governments notfriendly to the West. But let us follow the storyfurther.

On January 1st, 1951the South African NavalForces became the South African Navy in thewake of political changes in what later be-came the Republic of South Africa. At thesame time Harold Mc Millan's "Winds ofChange" began blowing through Africa and,one by one, the colonial governors of Africahauled down their flags and left for Europe.The tide of independence moved steadilysouth, each new nation gaining a seat in theUnited Nations and throwing its lot in eagerly

A Naval detachment parades through the streets of Durban

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with the "struggle" to "free" the next one. Theultimate prize was the treasure house in thesouth. This was also called "the bastion of theSouth", the "last redoubt" etc., and this lastredoubt also possessed a valuable pearl inthe treasure house - Simon's Town.

Simon's Town is a small suburban sea-sideresort at the end of a commuter railway lineserving Cape Town thirty kilometres away. Bya quirk of geography its small bay, Simon'sBay, offers protection from the South-EastTrade Wind whilst the larger bay off which itleads, False Bay, gives protection from thevicious North Wester's which plague CapeTown in winter. It was here, therefore, that theBritish decided to build a dockyard on thesea-route to India. At the height of the BritishEmpire, from 1885 to 1910this dockyard wasbuilt up into a massive enterprise similar tothose of Malta or in India.

In 1957as the Empire contracted this dockyardwas handed over to the SA Navy subject tocertain privileges for RN ships and an "Agree-ment for the Defence of the Sea RoutesAround Southern Africa" - the so-called "Si-mon's Town Agreement" was entered in to.By the terms of this agreement South Africaonce again embarked on a naval expansion,as she was now to carry the RN's load in thatpart of the world as part of the Western Alli-ance. From 1954to 1963she built up a British-type sea-going Navy with frigates, destroyers,mine-sweepers and seaward defence boats,backed up by Shackleton long range mari-time patrol aircraft and Wasp helicopters onthe larger ships. By 1972 the navy also in-cluded auxiliaries and submarines - the latterbuilt in France. International political changescontinued apace however and the British Em-pire, long since the British Commonwealth,had changed dramatically in composition.The traditional dominions of Canada, India,

A detachment of SA Naval Marines in Northem South West Africa (Namibia)

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Australia, New Zealand and South Africawere overwhelmed by the former coloniesand any remaining vestige of South Africaever being in the partnership was an embar-rassment to a Labour government in theUnited Kingdom. The Simon's Town Agree-ment was quietly terminated by mutual agree-ment in 1972 and the British, but not WesternConnection broken. South Africa shrugged offthe "perfidy of Albion" and turned to Francefor her naval supplies.

Arms Boycott

In 1977 with the tide of independence nowcoloured distinctly red bursting over the Zam-bezi a jubilant United Nations prepared for thecoup-de-grace in Southern Africa and insti-tuted an Arms Boycott against South Africa. Ifever there was a self-defeating resolution thatwas it. It misfired on three counts: Firstly it com-pletely ignored the fact that South Africa is awealthy and highly developed industrial na-tion; secondly it did not take into account theSouth African trait of thriving on adversity andlastly it ignored the strategic implications forthe West.

The weapons boycott and its result are out-side the scope of this article. It is sufficient tosay that South Africa is now not only com-pletely self-sufficient in this field but has alsobecome a competitive arms exporter. Thestrategic implications are however of interestto us.

The South African Navy was, to put it mildly,"knocked for a loop" by the initial implicationof the arms boycott. It was actually in the pro-cess of taking delivery of two corvettes fromFrance, with three submarines under construc-tion when the sales were cancelled. The knockhowever brought it to it's senses.

Why was it protecting the Cape Sea Routeand Southern Indian and Atlantic Oceans?Who was it doing it for? If the West, why?What was the point of trying to keep an alter-native to Suez open for a bunch of countrieswho were boycotting her? Whose alternativeoil life-line is the Cape Sea Route? Not SouthAfrica's! And so, with a tremendous heaveand much creaking and groaning of timbersthe Navy altered course away from the Westand towards the North.

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The SA Navy of today

South Africa is part of Africa. She is an Africanstate, whether the other African's like it or not.She is, moreover an independent regionalpower. Why mess about spending millions onthanklessly protecting somebody else's inter-ests when for the same money you can furtheryour own? It was decided to build a home-built new navy designed to support the con-cept of regional power. Because of the boy-cott no spares would be forthcoming for theBritish and French ships so a shipbuilding pro-gramme was set in motion. Ships which didnot need to be replaced were refitted usinglocally produced components, in many casesat a fraction of the cost of the previously im-ported item. The result was, and is, a steadysupply of new ships coming into commissionspecifically designed to meet and match anythreat which may arise from Soviet orientatedAfrican countries to the North. This is not withthe purpose of aggression but to unsure thatSouth Africa remains a regional power and todiscourage sea-borne adverturism from fur-ther afield. Launchings and commissionings,and particularly buildings, are kept low keybut the SA Navy is slowly but steadily growinginto a navy of compact, sophisticated strikecraft whilst at the same time keeping its biggerships for training and search and rescue roles.

Let us not forget the earlier part of this articleeither. This navy is not manned by a bunch ofhayseed's and Johnny-come-Iately's! Thewar-time tradition and knowledge was re-in-forced by NATO knowledge and overseascourses and exercises. South African warshipshave been seen in the Elbe, the Hudson, theSolent, under Sydney Bridge and in the Straitsof Magellan to name but a few examples.This knowledge, background, tradition andexpertise is now being marshalled towardscoastal defence and counter-insurgency, in-cluding submarines, a mine countermeasuresand an anti-submarine capability.

The change has not been an easy one toimplement. Your dyed-in-the-wool sea-goingsailor does not take easily to relinquishing ablue water option for coastal defence andSouth Africa's Military Establishment, as is nor-mal in a continental land power, had to beconvinced of the value of continuing with anavy at all in its new role. These hurdles wereovercome, only to be replaced by anotherone - how does a coastal defence navy fit in


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to a type of war which includes terrorism andinsurgency?

The answer to that is easy. You raise fromscratch a brigade of naval infantry, call them"marines" in keeping with tradition and usethem for harbour protection and ashore onthe border. To do this you design your ownclass of harbour protection boat and build 32of them, you invent other equipment such asbush-bashing mobile radars for coastal use,and you draw on the knowledge and tradi-tions of land-fighting predecessors from theturn of the century. So easily said, so easilydone, and the SA Navy's marines havealready been most successful in their ap-pointed role.

All in all then South Africa has a vigorous anddynamic Navy, actively engaged in estab-lishing itself as a force to be reckoned with inan African context. But for how long will thiscontinue?

Although resolutely ignoring apparant West-ern political strategy to cast her to the wolvesin favour of the Third World UN Lobby and

thus also waiving any responsibility for West-ern life-lines, South Africa's maritime strategy isnot static, nor does it depend on her Navyalone. There remains a moral responsibilityfor the safety of life at sea in a particularlyunfriendly area known for a part of its life as"The Cape of Storms". The South African AirForce has for years carried part of this re-sponsibility most effectively with its maritimeaircraft. Now that they have been groundeddue to age the navy has provided sea-bornehelicopters for the role which willy-nilly re-opens the whole question of deep sea shipswith long endurance in stormy waters. The AirForce which also has a glorious record includ-ing the Warsaw and Berlin Airlifts and a USPresidential Citation for Korea would be onlytoo willing to maintain its maritime presencebut the Arms Boycott now effectively meansland based air assistance to Internationalshipping in distress is now a thing of the past.Ingenuity has once again triumphed however,and an elderly auxiliary, the SAS TAFELBERG,has been refitted to carry two Super frelonhelicopters for off-shore rescue. This, coupledwith her remaining frigate and submarines,puts the SA Navy back into a deep-sea post-ure if she should so wish it.

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South Africa also possesses a large deep-seatrawling industry with its attendant fleet. Thereis no need to amplify in an article of this naturethe various roles a large deep-sea stern traw-ler can play in time of war. She also possessesa large and economically active MerchantNavy which includes helicopter carrying re-search ships, a passenger liner and containerships. Her oldest shipping company has a di-rect history to 1924and by amalgamation withother companies, back to 1869, which showsTanability to adapt and stay viable. MerchantNavy training is second to none, and the old"General Botha" which at one time listed itselfamongst the pre-war world greats of "Wor-cester", "Conway", "Du11erin" and "Pang-bourne" is still in existence and still turning outcadets.

Conclusion

If one thinks about it then, Western strategists,led by Western politicians are valiantly ignor-ing a long established minor navy which theirown intransigence is causing to grow into anup and coming regional maritime power. Willit stay regional? Africa is almost entirely Marx-ist or Socialist orientated. Those countries thataren't are in many cases strongly left-leaning.If Suez is closed yet again, or the Red Seamined again, Western ships would have to runa long guantlet through Soviet areas of influ-ence such as the Mocambique Channel on theEast Coast or past Angola, Sao Tome and

even Cuba in the West. Only the Southern tip,the treasure house, will remain free as weknow it. Soviet planners are well aware of this.South Africa therefore in its quest for supportmight have to allow its growing Navy to altercourse yet again. Westwards? Probably. Butnot towards the Western powers that havespurned it. There are other countries acrossthe South Atlantic who are not so blind thatthey cannot see the Communist threat on theirown continent nor so blind that they will con-tinually ignore a hand of friendship stretchedout towards them from the powerhouse ofAfrica.

It is safe to assume that the SA Navy, battle-tried on sea and land, hardened to heavyweather, Antarctic and world-wide operationswill reach the stage where facing North will nolonger present a challenge and he super-ceded by the famous old nautical phrase of"Westward Ho!" Should that happen her fleet,merchant fleet, ASW and MCM capabilities,her training facilities and counter insurgencycapability, and above all, her outstandingnaval bases and industrial infrastructure, couldmake this Navy a valued partner in any SouthAtlantic Alliance. In the light of not so distantevents in the South Atlantic this could be a joltto at least one Western power where politicalexpediency sometimes tends to cloud strate-gic common-sense. Will this navy alter courseyet again and, if it does, what consequenceswill that hold for the South Atlantic?

'Capt (SAN) Ivor C Little is attached to Naval Headquarters Pretoria.

The SAS Frans Erasmus at sea in a heavy swell

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Scientia M

ilitaria, South A

frican Journal of Military S

tudies, Vol 15, N

r 1, 1985. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za

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