Book review: First in Last out

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“First in Last out – The South African Artillery in Action 1975–1988” is a must-have. It is a lucid account of South African Army artillery operations during the Namibian/Angolan Border War and in doing so gives that war and the equipment, tactics and techniques employed a thorough treatment in much the same way as Brigadier General (Retd) Dick Lord did for the South African Air Force in his equally important “From Fledgling to Eagle” in 2008.

As such it builds on the official artillery history, “Ultima Ratio Regum”, published by the South African Defence Force in 1979.

In doing so, like Lord, he puts new information in the public domain, interesting to both the lay reader and specialist. The select bibliography confirms this, showing the primary source of Wilsworth’s material to be personal notes and interviews with a wide cast of primary characters, including Lt-Gen CP “Joffel” van der Westhuizen, Major General JA “Koos Bom” Laubscher Brigadier General George Kruys. Illustrations and photographs, many contributed by the interviewees, further add to the magic.

Particularly valuable is a chapter on artillery projects and the origin of current systems,including the M5 mortar, the G5 (Project Boas) and G6 (Project Zenula) gun howitzers and the (Project Furrow) FV1 127mm multiple rocket system.
“War is a great leveller, it is said, and the expression ‘what this army needs now is a war’ held in those early days as much as it does for the modern South African National Defence Force of the 21st Century. Soldiers become complacent in peacetime and despite all the best intentions, this complacency cascades down through all levels, from command and control at the top levels, to training, discipline and equipment maintenance at the lowest level. The 13 years of war caused a fundamental change to the South African Artillery’s doctrine, training, equipment, logistic support – and even its character,” Wilsworth says in his epilogue.

In his preface he calls for the lessons of war to be remembered: “Unfortunately, when we see what is happening in the South African Artillery of 2009, it seems those lessons have been forgotten. One example: up until 1991, the batteries, no matter what equipment was used, had eight guns (or mortars or launchers). In an effort to cut costs the decision was made to reduce these to six guns. The question is: why? What sort of saving is this when the rest of the structure within the battery remains the same. One wonders if the ‘poor bloody infantry’ were asked for an opinion; of so, they would have asked for 12 guns in a battery! The quote from … Clausewitz springs to mind, ‘In peace the cry is all mobility, in war, for weight of shell. Because of the complications in providing logistic support to these small fire units (in particular, ammunition), the decision was made that nothing smaller than a regiment (in SA, a battalion) would be deployed on operations. The wheel has done a full 360 degree turn,and the South African Artillery is back to individual batteries.”

Publishers 30 degrees South have seemingly hit a motherlode of good authors and even better titles, of which “First in Last out – The South African Artillery in Action 1975–1988” is just the latest. Well done to Chris Cocks and his team! Keep it up!

First in Last out – The South African Artillery in Action 1975–1988

Clive Wilsworth
30 Degrees South Publishers

Johannsburg

August 2010