Why the Boers Lost the War

Why the Boers Lost the War PDF Author: L. Scholtz
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023051331X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why did the British win the Anglo-Boer War? Although there is truth in the simple statement that they were much stronger than the Boers, it does not explain everything. Therefore, the main focus of this book is to analyse the most important strategic and operational decisions made on both sides, and to measure them according to accepted modern military theory. It is shown that both the British and Boer war efforts were very haphazard at the beginning, but that both learnt as the war went on. In the end, the British got the Boers in a vice from which they could not escape.

Why the Boers Lost the War

Why the Boers Lost the War PDF Author: L. Scholtz
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 023051331X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why did the British win the Anglo-Boer War? Although there is truth in the simple statement that they were much stronger than the Boers, it does not explain everything. Therefore, the main focus of this book is to analyse the most important strategic and operational decisions made on both sides, and to measure them according to accepted modern military theory. It is shown that both the British and Boer war efforts were very haphazard at the beginning, but that both learnt as the war went on. In the end, the British got the Boers in a vice from which they could not escape.

The Boer War 1899–1902

The Boer War 1899–1902 PDF Author: Gregory Fremont-Barnes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472810171
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 143

Get Book Here

Book Description
Victorious in its previous campaigns in Africa against native armies, Britain now confronted an altogether different foe. The Boers proved to be formidable opponents, masterfully compensating for inferior numbers with grim determination, resourcefulness and strong religious faith. Their mobility, expert use of cover, and knowledge of the terrain, in which they employed powerful long-range magazine rifles, gave them initial advantages. By contrast the British suffered from inadequate transport, insufficient mounted troops and poor intelligence. Despite marshalling the immense resources of their empire, the British were to be severely tested in a war which one general described as 'the graveyard of many a soldier's reputation'.

Four-War Boer

Four-War Boer PDF Author: Colin D. Heaton
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612001769
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
This “fascinating” biography of a South African-born warrior provides a window into a full century of military conflicts(Adam Makos, New York Times–bestselling author of A Higher Call). Four-War Boer traces Pieter Krueler’s highly colorful life from the Second Boer War, where he first served as a fourteen-year-old scout, to his service in World War I with the German army in East Africa to the Spanish Civil War to World War II, this time with the Allies, and on into the latter part of the twentieth century, when he served as a mercenary during the 1960s Congo Crisis. Later, in his eighties, he became a civilian trainer for the original Selous Scouts of Rhodesia and, later still, a trainer for South African commandos. The book follows Krueler through a remarkable career that included, among other adventures, leading native African soldiers on extremely dangerous missions in the Belgian Congo; volunteering as a mercenary during the Spanish Civil War, during which he worked with the Pyrenees Basque movement; serving as a coast watcher to keep South Africa safe from German incursion; and fighting alongside Michael Hoare during the 1960s Congo Crisis. A chapter is devoted to the formation of Rhodesia’s highly elite Selous Scouts, along with highlights of several previously classified missions. This material includes a wealth of new information, and breaks the secrecy surrounding Rhodesian and South African special operations, as unveiled through the experience of a man who was a founding father of counterinsurgency in Africa. Based on six years of historical research through hard-to-find secondary and published primary sources, as well as extensive interviews with Krueler himself, and interviews with German officers and others who knew and worked with him, this biography is filled with extensive first-person testimony that gives it the immediacy of a memoir.

Hero of the Empire

Hero of the Empire PDF Author: Candice Millard
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385535740
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic, this thrilling biographical account of the life and legacy of Wintson Churchill is a "nail-biter and top-notch character study rolled into one" (The New York Times). At the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England. He arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels and jumpstart his political career. But just two weeks later, Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape—traversing hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him. Bestselling author Candice Millard spins an epic story of bravery, savagery, and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters—including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Mohandas Gandhi—with whom Churchill would later share the world stage. But Hero of the Empire is more than an extraordinary adventure story, for the lessons Churchill took from the Boer War would profoundly affect twentieth century history.

Boer War Illustrated

Boer War Illustrated PDF Author: Thomas Pakenham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781868420742
Category : South African War, 1899-1902
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Great Boer War

The Great Boer War PDF Author: Byron Farwell
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783830611
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 920

Get Book Here

Book Description
The story of the battle for independence from the British Empire in South Africa by “a vivid chronicler of military forces, generals, and wars” (Kirkus Reviews). The Great Boer War (1899-1902), more properly known as the Great Anglo-Boer War, was one of the last romantic wars, pitting a sturdy, stubborn pioneer people fighting to establish the independence of their tiny nation against the British Empire at its peak of power and self-confidence. It was fought in the barren vastness of the South African veldt, and it produced in almost equal measure extraordinary feats of personal heroism, unbelievable examples of folly and stupidity, and many incidents of humor and tragedy. Byron Farwell traces the war’s origins; the slow mounting of the British efforts to overthrow the Afrikaners; the bungling and bickering of the British command; the remarkable series of bloody battles that almost consistently ended in victory for the Boers over the much more numerous British forces; political developments in London and Pretoria; the sieges of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley; the concentration camps into which Boer families were herded; and the exhausting guerrilla warfare of the last few years when the Boer armies were finally driven from the field. The Great Boer War is a definitive history of a dramatic conflict by the author of Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, “a leading popular military historian” (Publishers Weekly).

The Boer War

The Boer War PDF Author: Denis Judd
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 085772231X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Boer War of 1899-1902 was an epic of heroism and bungling, cunning and barbarism, with an extraordinary cast of characters - including Churchill, Rhodes, Conan Doyle, Smuts, Kipling, Gandhi, Kruger and Kitchener. The war revealed the ineptitude of the British military and unexpectedly exposed the corrupt underside of imperialism in the establishment of the first concentration camps, the shooting of Boer prisoners-of-war and the embezzlement of military supplies by British officers. This acclaimed book provides a complete history of the Boer War - from the first signs of unrest to the eventual peace. In the process, it debunks several of the myths which have grown up around the conflict and explores the deadly legacy it left for southern Africa.

The Defence of Duffer's Drift

The Defence of Duffer's Drift PDF Author: Ernest Dunlop Swinton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Guerrilla warfare
Languages : en
Pages : 74

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Undesirables

The Undesirables PDF Author: Dave Boling
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1743518943
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book Here

Book Description
The second novel from the author of Guernica (a top ten bestseller and winner of the Richard & Judy Summer Read 2009) is a deeply moving, intimate portrait of family, friendship and love, set against the backdrop of the second Boer war. Aletta Venter was on the family farm when the British troops arrived. She watched them burn her home to the ground before she was transferred, with her mother and siblings, to a prison camp. Never complaining, just living day by day, Lettie grows out of her innocent childhood. She is determined to be a good person, but everything is so complicated in this place where making the wrong decision can be life-threatening. What should she do about Maples, for example, the nineteen-year-old British guard who tries to befriend her? Is his kindness genuine, or would trusting him be a betrayal of herself and her country? A deeply moving, intimate portrait of family, friendship and love, set against the backdrop of the second Boer war at the turn of the twentieth century, The Undesirables (the British name for the residents of the camps) is the heart-rending yet life-affirming new novel from the top ten bestselling author of Guernica, winner of the Richard & Judy Summer Read.

The Victorian Soldier in Africa

The Victorian Soldier in Africa PDF Author: Edward Spiers
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719061219
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book re-examines the campaign experience of British soldiers in Africa during the period 1874-1902. It uses using a range of sources, such as letters and diaries, to allow soldiers to 'speak form themselves' about their experience of colonial.