In Enemy Hands, South African POWS in WW2 by Karen Horn 2015 257pg

 WW2 South Africans Prisoners of War in Germany 11/3/18

The memories of the Boer war 1900 still divided the country with some "bittereinders" (bitter enders) moving off to Patagonia and the States, Tanganyika . The hansoppers (capitulators)  were prepared to be a British Dominion.
WW1 Smuts and Botha drove the Germans out of SWA.
Oswald Pirow the Minister of Defence was pro Nazi and SA exported wool to Germany and bought Junker planes for SA Airways. Robey Leibbrandt was a SA Olympic boxing champion 1936  recruited by Germany to assassinate Smuts.

By the end of the WW2, 334 324 soldiers had served in the Union of South Africa Defense Force of them 16 430 were captured or reported missing. Because of the tensions of Afrikaner nationalism all South Africans were volunteers.
They ended up in the army for a number of reasons, some it was a job and they never thought they would leave SA, others affected by the depression found their farms did not pay others because friends had volunteered. Volunteers wore a red tab that was called "rooiluis" by those against the British in the end the UDF was almost equally divided by the 2 language groups. They had signed up to fight in Africa to defend SA.
When they arrived in the Italian colonies Eritrea , Somalia, Abyssinia they won the battles easily their biggest problem was the sand and flies. When later on in Libya they fought the Germans they realized their lack of experience. The soldiers taken directly to Libya had even less experience. Auxiliaries were volunteer coloureds running a kitchen who had been given captured Italian rifles for self defense this was objected to by the authorities.
1942 General Dan Pienaar was in a plane that crashed returning to SA  after he had driven out the Italian, he had the potential to be Smut's successor.
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They fought with outdated weapons and tactics against a highly organized Afrika Corp. Even the Germans knew about the Smuts or Hertzog affiliates. S A General Klopper was in charge of Tobruk but under Atchinleck with indecision taking its toll losing the battle. Even when they capitulated the soldiers didn't know it, they could have tried to escape and would not have been deserters. Here a third of the captured were South African. We read about the thirst, hunger marches and crowded POW camps in Bengazi with dysentery. Kloppers was exonerated and later head of the SA Army. Sir Villiers de Graaf was also captured.
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They were shipped to Italy and arrived with few warm cloths and lots of lice. Without Red Cross parcels they would have starved, their Italian guards did not eat much better than the POWs.
As prisoners there was resentment to the SA soldiers when it was heard that Grobbler capitulated at Tabruk but this really came across from the German propaganda as it was a time Germany were losing at Stalingrad. 
When Italy capitulated POWs were free to escape but were told to wait in the camps. This appears to have been false German information.  Over 700 escaped into Switzerland , others met up with the invading forces at Anzio.
The POWs were loaded onto trains and taken through the Bremen Pass to Landsdorf, Upper Silesia  which today is part of Poland. SA prisoners were chosen to work in agriculture as they were more adapt to it and so were able to get some food out in the fields.
When the Russians started attacking from the east they were marched westwards for weeks and saw the Allied planes carpet bombing German cities before  the Americans arrived. 
They travelled in Britain and a compound was set up for S. Africans near Briton. They were given a free train pass to have a tour as it took about 4 months to organize ships to get them home.
    Back home returning Afrikaans soldiers had very poor recognition especially POWs some returned to Ossawabrandwag neighbourhoods, so their stories were not told.  
The Nationalist Party came to power in 1948 and Smuts died in 1950

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My father's  memoir "HIllies War from Rommel to Patton" by Hillel Feldman is on Amazon, covered this whole period, there were a lot more stories he told us but did not mention in the book that he heard about from others.. My father actually saw Rommel who spoke to them in a good English and later saw Patton going past.
1)A ship San Sabastian was torpedoed and the Italian sailors abandoned it, prisoners went into the galley and enjoyed good food while the ship eventually reached a Greek beach.2) A few Russians escaped their camps and were hidden amongst the S. Africans. 3)Soldiers sent off to be recruited into the German Army had some good food and suffered lesson on Nazi dogma and then were returned to their Stalag.VIIB at Landsdorf. He said these were mostly Irish. 

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A Soldier and his Diary by Harris Green   2020   190pg  3/12/23

This is a diary written by (Solly) Solaman Green of the Third Field Engineers of the S. African Army. In was written from January 1942 to May 30th 1942. Born in Cape Town to Harris and Leah  in 1911 to Polish Jewish parents who had arrived there in 1902. The author knew about this diary and years later edited this book from it.

The SA army at the time consisted of 5,353 regulars and another 14,000 Active Citizen Force. Mostly volunteers 135,000 Whites  fought in the North African Campaigns. Another 70,000 non whites served as laborers transport driver and stretcher bearers.

The Commonwealth War Graves  Commission has records of 11,023 SA soldiers who died in WW2. that is more than 5% of those enlisted. In 1939 Solly volunteered to served and was trained at Zonderwater, near Pretoria.

From South Africa the troops were taken  by ship north along the East Coast of Africa to Egypt. Then traveled westwards along the Mediterranean coast of Egypt to Bug Bug, Sallim, Halfafa pass, Mersa Matruh,Sidi Barrani, Fort Capuszzi, Then in Libya Acroma Derna, Bardia, El adem . Bomba, Tobruk, Bir Hakeim and finally Gazala

1942,1st June during the Battle of Gazala he had to detonate a minefield and accidently suffered sever injuries. He was evacuated and via Tobruk and Cairo and put on a hospital ship Llandovery Castle back to South Africa. Gazala is on the coast 60 km west of Tobruk.  

Once Rommel defeated the British at this battle Tobruk fell to him later. This was the greatest achievement of Rommel and he was made Field Marshal from this victory. 

Harris was discharged from service Jun 1943. He returned to his old job at a lower salary as he was not the same man that left. Later a friend hired him "for what he is and not for what he was."

The Woolworth  Diary has adverts of the well know products sold in SA at the time  Describes The Union of South Africa as a British Dominion with a population of 6,530,649. Most of the other soldiers with Solly were taken prisoner and spent time in Italy as POWs.

Most history books are written by historians and are based on research by statesmen and career officer, they saw the war from the top down while the fighting soldier saw it from the bottom up