The Anglo-Boer War

The Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 saw the British Empire at the height of its power facing a small band of highly mobile Boers in South Africa. The war introduced the world to the concentration camp and is regarded as the first war of the modern era where magazine rifles, trenches and machine guns were deployed extensively. British losses topped 28 000 in a conflict that was supposed to take a few weeks but lasted three years.

Occasionally English South Africa Education Desmond Latham

143 Episodes

1 – 20

Episode 143 - Characters of the war an omnibus final edition with a great deal of Smuts

Thanks to those who’ve sent messages of support in the last few weeks – the level of interaction has been remarkable from all my listeners around the world. For some we started this journey together in September 2017 and here we are almost 36 months later and the Three Years…

14 Jun 2020 23 min

Episode 142 - The winners and the losers – counting the cost

This week we count the costs of the war and follow some of those involved as they begin the long process of recovery. First, the cost. There is still debate about some of the statistics as there always is after a war. However the general consensus is that more than…

7 Jun 2020 22 min

Episode 141 - Peace!

Episode 141 is where the British and the Boers finally sign a peace treaty, but there’s quite a bit to cover as we go about watching the days between 19th and 31st May 1902. Remember how the representatives from both sides, Botha, Smuts, Hertzog, De Wet, Burger and De la…

31 May 2020 21 min

Episode 140 - General Cronje demands a St Helena mounted guard & Peace Talks back on in Pretoria

The first large group of Boer prisoners were taken by the British at the battle of Elandslaagte on 21st October 1899. The army had failed to plan for prisoners because the idea was the Boers would be beaten in a few weeks so why spend money on POW camps? The…

24 May 2020 23 min

Episode 139 - Emotions run high in Vereeniging as the Boers discuss English Peace terms

Episode 139 is full of peace and a smattering of love as the Boers gather in Vereeniging to discuss the British terms of surrender. As you can well imagine, the moment is bitter sweet. Men who have not seen their children for years are reunited on May 15th, while further…

17 May 2020 23 min

Episode 138 - The Zulu massacre Boers at Holkrantz on the eve of the Vereeniging Conference

We’re up to episode 138 and it’s a week to go before the all-important Boer Conference in Vereeniging starting May 15th 1902. Lord Kitchener has ordered his men in all intents and purposes to stop chasing the Boers, stop the burning of farms and to wait for the Boers conference…

10 May 2020 21 min

Episode 137 -Smuts meets a ragged Louis Botha and a Boer spy loses her mind momentarily

First we join General Jan Smuts who has been waiting in Cape Town for the British to lay on a a train to take him inland where he will join the Boer political and military leaders at Vereeniging for a conference starting on May 15th. They gathered in order to…

3 May 2020 19 min

Episode 136 - Deneys Reitz receives a record promotion and General Smuts takes a cruise to Cape Town

We’re back in the Northern Cape with General Jan Smuts. He’s been waiting in vain for more than two weeks for the British to send a relief force after he laid siege to the well defended town of O’Kiep having already seized Springbok and Concordia. Meanwhile, the first round of…

26 Apr 2020 18 min

Episode 135 - General de la Rey’s Mom turns 84 & the commandos run out of pap and vleis

While the Boer political and military leadership were huddled around a table in Lord Kitchener’s office, far off in the Northern Cape General Smuts and his commando had defeated the British at three small towns through the months of March and April 1902. We’ve heard about the assaults on Springbok,…

19 Apr 2020 18 min

Episode 134 - Commandant Potgieter’s charge at the last battle of the Boer War, as Peace Talks begin

This is episode 134 and its April 1902. The Boer military and political leadership has been permitted by the British to travel to Pretoria by train and will meet with Lord Kitchener to talk peace. All the fighting of the previous two years and 6 months have led both sides…

12 Apr 2020 19 min

Episode 133 - Cecil John Rhodes dies and the Boers agree to Peace Talks

As we heard last week, the Netherlands government had decided by January 1902 that the South Africa war was no longer viable for the Boers. Even the latest successes in March where General De la Rey and Jan Smuts had been victorious in battles in the western Transvaal and Northern…

5 Apr 2020 19 min

Episode 132 -The Canadians last stand at Boschbult aka Harts River & the Hague suggests peace

There are a few more skirmishes and one more big battle after this period with its frustrations for the British and determination by the Boer die-hards or Bitter einders to continue their war against an empire at its zenith. We will hear about General Christiaan de Wet and Lord Kitchener…

29 Mar 2020 18 min

Episode 131 -The Boers blow up a blockhouse & Lord Kitchener steams into Klerksdorp

General Jan Smuts and his commando have seized the small town of Springbok in the far northern Cape. As we heard last week, the town fell after a few hours of fighting and the surrender of the three forts that dominated its defences. After the town was taken, our narrator…

22 Mar 2020 19 min

Episode 130 - Sniping and hand grenades in Springbok

After the blood and guts we heard about last week, there is more of the same this time in the Northern Cape where General Smuts and his commando are sowing a certain degree of angst as he took control of large areas of the region. The only real problem was…

15 Mar 2020 23 min

Episode 129 - Lord Methuen breaks a leg before Koos de la Rey executes soldiers

In this episode we will hear how General Koos de la Rey captures Lord Methuen in an act that will push Lord Kitchener over a psychological precipice. Remember when we ended last week I explained how Lord Methuen was particularly despised by both de la Rey and General Christiaan de…

8 Mar 2020 25 min

Episode 128 -The Leliefontein Massacre & de Wet runs into British trenches

Episode 128 -The Leliefontein Massacre & de Wet runs into British trenches by Desmond Latham

1 Mar 2020 22 min

Episode 127 -A treacherous spy meets his Nemesis and Jan Smuts heads for the beach

We’ll kick off where we left off last week – where Jan Smuts’ commando was near Calvinia in the northern Cape evading the English. But its also where commandant Bouwer was surprised by a mounted infantry unit of the British – killing or wounding 17 men who were mainly skewered…

23 Feb 2020 19 min

Episode 126 - Jan Smuts makes a remarkable speech & we meet the treacherous colonial Lambert Colyn

This week we’ll find out what happened to Jan Smuts and his commando as they combine forces with Kommandant van Deventer who is in the middle of a major skirmish with the British near Calvinia in the northern cape. The war is sputtering, the Boers are faltering, the British are…

16 Feb 2020 20 min

Episode 125 - A sleepy blockhouse stymies Kitchener’s New Model Drive & Jan Smuts leaves Kakamas

February 1902 is full of surprises, not least for Lord Kitchener who has designed his great Drives which are similar to hunting Grouse on the moors of England. Lines of men walk side by side, twenty yards apart, driving the Boers before them until they are squashed against the blockhouses…

9 Feb 2020 18 min

Episode 124 -The incredible tale of the seven foot tall Coenraad de Buys and his independent clan

This week we’ll concentrate on surely one of the more unique southern africans of the 18th Century, who’s descendents feature as a small independent people in modern South Africa, and who found themselves stuck in a British concentration camp in the northern Transvaal town of Pietersburg in 1901. I was…

2 Feb 2020 19 min