UNPUBLISHED CHAPTERS FROM THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE SA NAVAL FORCES DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Abstract

The first narrative of the South African Naval Forces during the Second World War was written by Cdr H.R. Gordon-Cumming, OBE for the Union War Histories Section in the Office of the Prime Minister and appears to have been completed in December 1950. A number of chapters from this work were included in War In the Southern Oceans 1939-45 which was published by Oxford University Press in 1961. In December 1967 a shortened version of Cdr Gordon-Cumming's narrative, which he entitled Brief History (Sea) was included in a book duplicated on a Roneo machine, A Short History of the SA Navy, compiled by Lt (now Cdre, Retired) A.P. Burgers for the SA Navy's Directorate of Personnel at Naval Headquarters.