A Country at War 1939-1945, The Mood of a Nation

Author: Jennifer Crwys-Williams

Length: 430 pages, including index

This work strives to be a sweeping picture of the feeling on the home front of South Africa during WWII, and does well for the most part.

Mrs. Crwys-Williams gives us the story with many interviews of people who lived through the war years, starting with South Africa's declaration of war on Germany, four days after Britain did. She talks about the part women played, from entertaining the troops, to war work with aircraft assembly, and with nurses. She also deals with the sinister thread that wove its way through South African life, with the Ossewabrandwag, the Afrikaner nationalists who were against South Africa's siding with Britain, and went as far as beating servicemen out alone, and acts of sabotage.

If there's a problem with her work, it's that about a third of her stories could be called "off topic," since they were about South African soldiers in action, from doctors and chaplains in Egypt, an artilleryman in Italy, and POW's in Germany.

Otherwise, if you can get through this thick volume, then it's worth your effort, in my opinion, to try this look at that chapter of WWII that people don't often look for.