Schmidl, Erwin A

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Book Reviews/BoekbesprekingsErwin A. Schmidl, Oesterreicher im Burenk,'ieg1899-1902; doctoral thesis University of Vienna,1981,400 pp., published by the author.Not only in South Africa and Great Britain there isan increased interest for the second Anglo-BoerWar 1899-1902, but also in other countries forwhom this war was far away and of limited im-portance. It is a matter apart to explain the re-markable interest in this colonial war fought longago. Recently in Vienna the fifth Austrian doc-toral thesis regarding this war since World War IIhas appeared. It is the work of Erwin A. Schmidl,a very thorough thesis, based on archival re-search in Austria, Britain and South Africa, visitsto family of veterans in Austria and a tour of themuseums and war memorials in South Africa.The author begins with a sketch of South Africanhistory which cannot please all South Africans. Iread on p. 21 regarding the Great Trek that theblack population was subdued with brutal force;no mention is made of the preceding unpro-voked attacks of the Matabeles and Zulus on theVoortrekkers. On p. 23 we find the misconceptthat in 1890-99 the foreigners - mainly Britishers- outnumbered the burghers in Transvaal. On p.146 lord Roberts is called as popular with theBoers as with the British soldiers, but I regardthe opinion that the Boers hated Roberts evenmore than Kitchener more acceptable. On p.150 I read the often quoted British reproach thatBoer women in concentrations camps paintedtheir sick children green; a proof of their igno-rance; the British did not know the green blue-gum ointment, house medicine of the Boers,used because of lack of medicine in the iII-sup-plied camps.Writing objectively and well-informed aboutSouth African history appears to remain difficult.For the rest Schmidl's work is objective and cor-rect in detail.He continues his book with a survey of consularrepresentatives of the Danube monarchy, muchlater followed by diplomats in South Africa. Moreinteresting is his description of the volunteersand military attaches from Austria-Hungary inthe South African war. A book of this kind con-tains mainly a collection of more or less com-plete biographies, most of these of colourful61characters. Schmidl has done for the Austriansand Hungarians what Alan H. Winquist did someyears ago for the Scandinavians in the war1899-1902. The characteristics which they as-cribe to their fellow countrymen in the war arealso to be found in other foreigners in SouthAfrica in 1899-1902. Schmidl states that theimmigrants and war volunteers came from allpopulation classes in Austria-Hungary. They areto be distinguished into immigrants who hadarrived before the war and were more or lessacquainted with the men and circumstances inSouth Africa, and the freshmen from Europe andAmerica.He points out the variety of motives to volunteerin the South African war for one of the contestingparties. I am of the opinion that these motivesoccurred with all foreign volunteers who turnedup in this war. Schmid I correctly assumes thatonly a minority of them was animated by ideal-ism to help the small heroic Boer nation againstthe overwhelming might of British imperialism. Isuppose that unemployment in the republicsduring the prevailing depression moved manyyoung immigrants to enlist in the British or theBoer army in 1899 because they received freeclothing, food and horses and as British recruitsa few shillings per day.Schmidl also refers to the fin-de-siecle feelingswith some European intellectuals which drovethem to South Africa because they were dissatis-fied with European civilization and esteemed theBoers as a simple, morally pure agrarian people.Examples are the Austrian military attache Ro-bert Trimmel (p. 218), the Austrian count Adal-bert von Sternberg (p. 258) and the French colo-nel Georges de Villebois-Mareuil.The idealistic pro-Boers however experiencedsevere disappointment because of the cool re-ception by the rank and file of the Boers. Therewere so many selfish adventurers and fortunehunters among the foreign volunteers that theburghers soon mistrusted them. Moreover theydespised their lack of knowledge of veld-life.Another category of foreign volunteers consistedof the black sheep of distinguished Europeanfamilies who had failed in their own country.Among them we find several army officers.Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 12, Nr 3, 1982. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.zaSchmidl mentions the Austrians and HungariansRobert Birnbacher, Anton baron von Goldegg,leader of the small Austro-Hungarian corps,Felix baron Luszensky and Tibor Pechy, nephewof pope Leo XIII. Since 1871 Europe and theUSA had not waged a major war and someofficers were bored, spent too much money,misbehaved or ran into high debts. Some ofthem left for the war in South Africa as 'Beur-faubte' to seek adventure and escape theircreditors. Many of them expected the Boer gov-ernment to give them the command of a divisionand high pay, but they had to serve as commonburghers and the Boers ignored their militaryadvice. After their return to Europe some ofthese black sheep distinguished themselves inWorld War I, eg Von Goldegg and Birnbacher.Thanks to the service reports regarding officersin the military archives Schmidl is better in-formed about the officers than the civilian volun-teers among the Austrians and Hungarians.Some of these were journalists, eg FrancoSeiner, whose lively book of the war is oftenquoted by Schmid!. He mentions on p. 298-308also Austrians and Hungarians as volunteerswith the British army in South Africa, namely theofficers August J. Meyer and Viktor baron Rams-nerg and private LAjos VAdasz.Some foreigners fought bravely and lost theirlives or health; losses of the foreign brigadeswere much higher than in the Boer commandos.Other foreigners however behaved like para-sites, chaffered and stole - be it partly becausethe Boers did not feed and clothe them - andbelonged to the 'Schfachtenbummfer' who fol-lowed the fighters to the front but avoided fightsand looked for loot. The British press called themmercenaries, although they were not paid, and itis true that many had the mentality of 'Lands-knechte'. Schmidl refers to this kind of soldiers inthe post-decolonization wars in Africa since1960 on p. 312-315, and mentions the book 'Thewild goose' which describes them. The Britishpress overestimated the role of the foreigners inthe Boer ranks or underestimated them asskunking loot-seekers.A seperate category of foreign volunteers werethe personnel of European ambulances whooften served the Boer forces excellently. Someof them continued their charitable work duringthe strenuous guerrilla war. Schmidt mentionsthe Austrian surgeons Florian Albrecht, SimonBenz and Siegmund Kaufmann.62The last category of foreigners were the militaryattaches with the British and Boer armies. Theywere professional, selected officers sent by theirgeneral staff to the war in South Africa to reportas had become usual in Western armies in thecourse of the 19th century. Most of them wereexcellent observers and some did good journa-listic work and published good reportages. Weknow the careers and characters of most ofthem. Schmidl mentions most of them and ofcourse devotes his attention largely to the Aus-trian, Robert Trimmel, with the British army. Hegives a biography of this intelligent officer.I may add that Trimmel had the same experi-ences as other young military attaches after theirreturn from South Africa, namely the Dutchmanlieutenant L.J.K. Thomson and the Norwegiancaptain J. Allum. This war taught them to depre-ciate parade gymnastics and to recommend ac-curate shooting-practice, seeking of cover onthe soldier's own initiative, avoidance of attacksin closed ranks and quick-firing guns. Their new-fangled ideas found little response among eldersenior officers who had participated in Europeanwars long ago, such as in France in 1870-71and the Balkan in 1877-78, and in colonial warsagainst primitive people. The attaches' extensivereports were provided with comments showingadhesion or doubt because warfare in Europewas thought quite different from war in SouthAfrica. Guerrilla warfare was practically ignored.Lively discussions in meetings and military jour-nals ensued but for few years. Thereafter themuch more important Russo-Japanese war in1904-05 overshadowed the South African warand the reports about this war were shelved inthe archives. It is an open question whether andhow much European general staffs have learnedfrom the war in South Africa; I fear not much.Only since the last few years historians undig theattaches reports, dust them off and publish themwith comments.Schmidl relates that Trimmel's very extensivereport shared the fate of most reports. Despitethe personal interest of the emperor and thearchduke as commander-in-chief the highestarmy officers practically ignored Trimmel's re-marks and discouraged the continuance of hiscordial contact with the British army. Trimmelserved bravely as a major in World War I, wasdistinguished several times and died at the ageof 88 in Vienna.Schmidl does not analyse Trimmel's unpu-blished report, perhaps because it is too longScientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 12, Nr 3, 1982. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.zaand because Schmidl did not want to add to histhesis of 400 pages. A microfilm of Trimmel'sreport of towards 1000 pages is in the archive ofthe South African Defence Force and of the Statearchive in Pretoria.Schmidl had written an excellent work and Ihope that it will be soon generally available, ifpossible with a translation in English.Dr C. de Jong(University of South Africa)'Ragtime Soldiers: The Rhodesian experience inthe First World War' deur Peter McLaughlin.Books of Zimbabwe, Posbus 1994, Bulawayo,Zimbabwe, 1980 (pp. 159 met foto's, kaarte enregister).Hierdie werk, wat de[j('n jong akademikus ge-skryf is, sal aan die verwagtings van hulle te-leurstel wat 'n wetenskaplik-verantwoorde mili-tere-historiese publikasie verwag. Dit was nie diedoel wat die outeur beoog het nie. Hy wou,omdat hy getref was deur die mate van onbe-kendheid in sy land aangaande die deelnamevan Rhodesie aan die Eerste Wereldoorlog,daardie leemte op 'n populere wyse aanvul.Sover afgelei kan word het hy beskikbare ar-giewe en die dagbladpers van die jare 1914-1918 met vrug geraadpleeg en verwerk. Waarinhy veral geslaag he!, is sy lewendige verhaal-trant wat die leser in sy verbeelding terugvoer nagebeurtenisse wat vandag grotendeels vergeetis, na persoonlike ervarings van deelnemers aandie uitputtingsoorlog in die destydse bosoorlogin Oos-Afrika en die worstelinge in die loopgraweaan die wesfront in Europa. Dit is 'n boek volatmosfeer en wisselende stemmingsbeelde, po-litiek en militer aan die tuisfront, militer aan dieonderskeie fronte waar Rhodesiers geveg het.Die front in Oos-Afrika, weliswaar 'n vergete frontin 1914-1918, maar van die uiterste belang virtoekomstige militere beplanners en deelnemersaan die Tweede Wereldoorlog, waaronder - inalbei gevalle - van ons eie weerbare Suid-Afrikasowel as Rhodesie het albei as buurlande engekoppel aan die destydse Britse wereldryk indie Eerste Wereldoorlog betrokke geraak in 'ntydperk waarin aldus die skrywer 'n Britse oorlog'n ryksoorlog was. Suid Rhodesie is deur 'nmaatskappy, die British South Africa Com-pany(BSAC) bestuur. Suid Rhodesie se blankebevolking het, en ons haal weer aan - daarnagestrewe 'to out-British the British' terwyl Suid-Afrika vir die eerste maal na 1902 deur die deel-name aan die oorlog op die pad na innerlikeverskeurdheid geplaas was. Rhodesie het oortwee verdedigingseenhede, die British SouthAfrica Police (1 150) en die Southern RhodesiaVolunteers (2 000) beskik. Hierdie eenhede wasnie in aile opsigte slaggereed nie. Die opleidingen samestelling was van 'n twyfelagtige waardevir deelname aan die gewapende konflik in Eu-ropa. Waar die geesdrif hoof opgevlam het enRhodesiers tot die stryd wou toetree, het 300 byBritse eenhede aangesluit. Met die uitbreek vandie rebel lie in Suid-Afrika het 'n verdere 200vrywilligers in Salisbury, wat in die voetspore vanhulle voorgangers wou volg, in militere diens vanSuid-Afrika getree om te help om die Rebellie teonderdruk. Hierdie eenheid, bekend as 1 Rho-desia Regiment, het te Bloemfontein aangekom.Te laat om die Rebellie te help onderdruk is dieeenheid te Tempe gestasioneer om daarna oor-geplaas te word na Maitland. Daarna is die Rho-desiers, aan boord van die Monarch na Walvis-baai verskeep. Hulle aandeel in die veldtog inDSWA is in hoofstuk 2 beskryf. Terug in )Saap-stad is die eenheid ontbind. Die lede van 1 RRhet of by Britse eenhede of by SA eenhede aan-gesluit. Hulle bestemming was die oorlogsterreinin Wes-Europa.Hoofstuk 3 (pp. 1~ 7) bied die leser 'n lewen-dige oorsig oor die Rhodesiers se militere op-trede wat hom in Duits Oos-Afrika afgespeel hettot Februarie 1917. 2 Rhodesia Regiment hetvroeg in 1915 op die oorlogsterrein verskyn. Inhierdie hoofstuk verkry die leser 'n uitstekendeoorsig oor die bosoorlog met al sy probleme,soos dikwels ontoereikende rantsoene, menig-vuldige siektes, vervoervraagstukke, klimaatin-vloede, vindingrykheid, ontberings e.d.m. Hier-die faktore het 2 RR verswak en verliese laat Iy.Elke maand was 150 nuwelinge benodig om dieeenheid op die vereiste sterkte te laat bly. Aan-gesien dit onmoontlik was, het die oorblywendesvan 2 RR in April 1917 na Rhodesie teruggekeer.2 RR is ontbind en die gewilliges wat nog konveg is in Suid-Afrikaanse infanterie-eenhede op-geneem of het op eie houtjie by Britse eenhedeaangesluit. Op 12.10.1917 het 2 RR, waarvan 'ngroot aantal lede in DDA onder genl J.C. Smutsgeveg het, se laaste uur geslaan. Die RhodesiaNative Regiment het die stryd tot die einde voort-gesit. een van die redes was dat hulle gewoondgeraak het aan tropiese toestande. Hierdie hoof-stuk is ryk aan persoonlike indrukke van hullewat aan hierdie veldtog deelgeneem het. Daar isook besonderhede in verband met menigvuldigevervoerprobleme en mediese toestande. 2 RRhet 2 272 hospitaal- en 10 626 siektegevalle ge-63Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 12, Nr 3, 1982. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za

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