Ntwa Ya Hitler

Our country’s wartime contribution is partially reflected in the number of men who served in armed forces. During the war a total of 10,027 men served in the Bechuanaland Protectorate Companies of the British Imperial Army’s “African Pioneer Corps” (APC). A further thousand or so Protectorate Batswana were enlisted in the “South African Native Military Corps”, while an unknown number also helped fill the ranks of the “Rhodesian African Rifles.”

Given that the territory’s population at the time numbered less than 300,000 (the population counts for the 1936 and 1946 census were, respectively, 265,756 and 296,310), this contribution represented about 15% of all able-bodied adult male Batswana. No part of the British Empire provided a greater proportion of fighting men.