Boer War

As this photo demonstrates, some of the Boers' soldiers were very young. One of the British generals was shot dead by a 12 year old boy

Sorry, have no knowledge of WWI - apart from the throwing of horrendous numbers against the Germans without winning any ground. However, despite this, much needed reforms had started in the War Office. In Queen Victoria's day, her cousin Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, was an arch conservative and die-hard, who opposed any reform on principle. British officers, so far as he was concerned, were gentlemen and sportsmen, but entirely wanting in military knowledge; something he deemed unnecessary. Their drubbing at the hands of the Boers was not considered too serious as the Boers were considered a backward rabble. It took the mighty disciplined German army to convince them they had a problem, that their army was minute and led by incompotents, and that their navy was not going to be the be-all and end-all of defence. Until 1900 the British navy could take on any two navies in the world simultaneously. When the Kaiser targetted huge increases in the German navy, and with an already enormous mighty and efficient army led by Prussian army officers (now that was terrifying) the British knew that time was of the essence. The Kaiser hid his machinations so clevery behind his Secret Service allocation of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year, but he meant business.

Hahahahahah. I found your post really funny, Nick. Yes, it seems that the British caution of change realy gets in the way of their progress. And even though the Brits had gone into khaki for the Second Boer War, their modus operandii had not altered since the Crimea. Hence the shudderingly awful start start to the Boer War when men were marched shoulder to shoulder to their deaths, against an elusive and fleet-footed Boer army who were creating the blueprint of modern warfare. It took the close cooperation and friendship of Winston Churchill and King Edward VII to start the modernising of the War Office.

At the time of the Boer War, the Boers were mostly farmers with little or no education, with only a spoken language but no written language and with no schools or universities. English speaking and German speaking schools opened in Johannesburg in the early 1900s and 'High Dutch' was taught alongside English in schools until the 1920s when Afrikaans was added. The Boers had strong moral ethics, but many thought that these did not apply if they were dealing with the British or the blacks, both of whom they considered reprehensible races. They considered that the British had coralled them in the centre of the nation, trying to prevent their expansion and many British were patronising and demeaning in their dealings with the Boers. It was said that President Kruger would not allow Cecil Rhodes' name to be uttered in his presence. As a gold mine owner, Cecil Rhodes probably felt much the same about Paul Kruger who pirated the gold mines and expelled an American Jewish Rabbi for giving public expression to his opinion of the persecution of the Jews and the Catholics in the Transvaal. (New York Times May 7th 1900) (The racial discrimination against Jews became especially difficult because most of the gold mine owners were Jewish.)

Ah! Very delicate ground here. But if I can just interject, I see that Bulldog has said 'sympathisers/traitors', so I'm guessing, but it would seem they're the same animal, sympathisers if you were a Boer, and traitors if you were British. Also, apparently it was a point of honour for many Boers to take an oath of alliegence to Queen Victoria to allay suspicions so that they could go on doing exactly what they had been doing. I realise that this is a contentious statement and one which I could not prove; nevertheless it seems to crop up a lot as a general statement and comes under the belief of 'where there's smoke there's fire.' But if it could be proved, those who took part would be traitors, no matter how noble their motives.

Unfortunately it suffers from the main draw-back of any fixed fortification: the Boers would quickly have found out about it, and simply avoided it. As they were generally unencumbered with artillery / wagons, they could avoid the beaten track much more easily than the British. Also bear in mind that there were plenty of traitors / sympathisers who would keep the Boers informed as to every move of the British - it is small wonder that the Brits often dealt with such people harshly.

There are several 'preserved' blockhouses one can visit in South Africa. An especially good one is beside the N1 (main Johannesburg - Cape Town highway) a few hours outside of Cape Town - might even be the one in the photo. It was evidently built to protect the old iron railway bridge which is still visible next to it.

Have commented on the Voortrekker thread.

Another interesting modern 'myth' is the PC-inspired push to claim that the Boer War was not the 'white man's war' that everyone at the time accepted it was.

Edited by Bulldog69 - 15-Nov-2011 at 04:35

Not the most 'PC' of anecdotes, but interesting nonetheless:

 

‘Among the marvelous escapes recorded, and these were not a few, was one of a negro who was shot through the brain by a bullet. The projectile passed through one temple and lodged into the other, yet the man still survived, and showed a decided intention to recover. There is an old story of a Jamaica negro who fell from a tree without injury, and when asked how he had escaped, he explained his good fortune by saying: ‘Tank God, me fall on me head!’. The invulnerability of the nigger cranium has its advantages’
South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol.3, p.19

While accurate, the newly adopted, smaller .303 (or roughly equivilant 7mm round for the Mauser) rounds travelled much faster than those fired by the Martini-Henry style weapons the Lee Metfords and Mausers replaced and thus generally didn't tumble on impact. If these smaller round didn't strike bone, therefore, the bullet usually passed straight through the victim's body without doing too much harm. There are numerous remarkable takes of Tommies getting riddled with bullets but emerging relatively unscathed.

It is also noteworthy that Buller's field hospital contained an X-Ray unit which undoubtedly helped a great many wounded soldiers.

Edited by Bulldog69 - 25-Oct-2011 at 07:18