The Great Silence

When war struck in 1914, it struck not just in Europe, but everywhere across the globe, including South Africa, whose troops saw action in five theatres. They fought one another on home soil, during a rebellion fuelled by old resentments; they fought the Germans in the deserts of South West Africa and the jungles of East Africa (now Namibia and Tanzania); they fought in Egypt; and they fought, and died in their thousands, on the Western Front. Tim Couzens’ The Great Silence tells the story of South Africa’s Great War, meticulously bringing the details of the different campaigns to light, with a dedicated chapter on each major theatre of action, from Sandfontein to Delville Wood, plus a special chapter on the contribution of black South African troops to the Allies’ ultimate victory. Fully illustrated with over 150 photographs, maps and graphics, and with eight special insets on some of the more extraordinary characters in the war – such as Jackie the baboon, who was wounded by shrapnel in Flanders and returned to South Africa a hero – The Great Silence takes us into the dark heart of the Great War itself.