Desmond Latham The Anglo-Boer War

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
143 Episodes
120 – 140

Episode 23 - Kitchener, Cronje and the Battle of Paardeberg

The siege of Kimberley has been lifted and the enigmatic and colorful General French and his 5000 strong cavalry are in charge of the city. The Boers have withdrawn just in time to avoid being caught by the flying column which had itself suffered from the speed of the trip…
25 Feb 2018 20 min

Episode 22 - The relief of Kimberley

We’re up to Episode 22 in this series, and this week the story shifts to Kimberley itself. Earlier - around podcasts 2 and 3, I described how this town was really in the hands of the de Beers Mining company with its CEO, Cecil John Rhodes, very much in charge…
18 Feb 2018 22 min

Episode 21 - Lord Roberts’ Steamroller

After the last few weeks of skop skiet and donder - which means kick, shoot and beating (In Afrikaans) - we’re shifting our gaze back to the Western Reaches of South Africa, back towards the Cape and Kimberley. There are many subtleties at play here which we must address. General…
11 Feb 2018 24 min

Episode 20 - The Acre of Death part 3

It’s 24th January 1900 and the battle of Spion Kop has been under way for ten hours. More than 1000 British soldiers are casualties and the entire senior officer corps on the summit of the mountain are dead. General Redvers Buller who’d put two thirds of his Natal Army in…
4 Feb 2018 23 min

Episode 19 - The Acre of death, Spion Kop part 2

This week we continue with the battle of Spion Kop and as you’ll hear, its a battle that horrified those who took part with its hand-to-hand fighting, terrible artillery barrages and massacre of British troops who’d been trapped on the summit of Spion Kop where there was no escape from…
28 Jan 2018 25 min

Episode 18 - The Acre of death – the Battle of Spion Kop part 1

It's January 1900 and we're at the eponymous battle of Spion Kop. In part one of the two part coverage of the battle, we will take a look at preparations for the battle and discuss the tactics. Right now its January 1900 and it’s midsummer in South Africa, heat waves…
21 Jan 2018 20 min

Episode 17- The centipede approaches Spion Kop

We have arrived at the most momentous battle of the Boer War, the Battle of Spion Kop. Its notoriety continues to this day with war buffs traveling to the steep sided hill half an hours drive South West of Ladysmith in the Natal – or KwaZulu Natal as its now…
14 Jan 2018 14 min

Episode 16 - Winston Churchill escapes but Spion Kop looms

Winston Churchill who had been captured near Chieverley on the railway line between Escourt and Ladysmith in October and was lucky not to have been shot on the spot. While ostensibly working as a war correspondent for the Morning Post newspaper, he really was more than an imbedded reporter. Churchill’s…
7 Jan 2018 17 min

Episode 15 - Ladysmith and the Music of the Guns

The last six weeks have been a short sharp shock for our British friends who’ve visited the veld and the semi-desert in the Northern Cape and the green hills of Natal. Things have moved apace since war was declared on October 10th. It’s Christmas 1899 and across South Africa, few…
31 Dec 2017 24 min

Episode 14 - The end of Black Week

It’s December 1899 and the British have already registered 3 000 casualties in various battles across South Africa. The latest we heard about was the Battle of Colenso on 15th December in Natal where the British casualty rate topped 1 130 with over 700 wounded and the result cost Commander…
24 Dec 2017 17 min

Episode 13 - The Battle of Colenso

So here we are, the battle of Colenso, December 15th 1899. Four Victoria Crosses were awarded in this clash but it also led to defeat for the British who stumbled repeatedly under the command of their beloved yet faulty Sir Redvers Buller. The Boers, although victorious, began to appreciate the…
17 Dec 2017 28 min

Episode 12 - Buller, Botha, Gandhi and Colenso

We heard last week how General Methuen had been roundly defeated at the battle of Magersfontein in the Northern Cape and had withdrawn his force back to the Modder River. North east across South Africa and in the province of Natal, the commander of the British troops Sir Redvers Buller…
10 Dec 2017 20 min

Episode 11- Magersfontein and Black Week

The Battle of Magersfontein destroyed a Highland Brigade and taught the English a lesson they'd forget almost immediately. Do not launch a frontal attack on a hidden enemy unless you do proper reconnaissance. Magersfontein would also lead directly to General Methuen losing his command as the commander of British Forces…
3 Dec 2017 24 min

Episode 10 - the Battle of Modder River

The Battle of Modder River took place after two other skirmishes which are called soldiers’ battles. These are bloody affairs where men die in droves, The battles of Belmont and Graspan then elicited a strategic master stroke by the Boers where they figured out how to exact high casualties by…
28 Nov 2017 19 min

Episode 9 -Kimberley and the dreaded Rhodes

Our view shifts to the Western reaches of South Africa - the south western to be specific. Last week we watched how Winston Churchill as captured at Chieverly south of Colenso on the main line to Ladysmith where the wretched 13 000 British troops were surrounded by Boers. That was…
19 Nov 2017 21 min

Episode 8 - The Boers move south and Winston Churchill is captured

It’s just over a month since hostilities were declared formally on 10th October 1899, a number of battles have been fought that dispelled British notions of a quick and easy war. Thousands of casualties have been reported and there’s some consternation in London. By this time, about a third of…
12 Nov 2017 23 min

Episode 7 - General Buller splits his force

General Redvers Buller, the commander of British forces in South Africa, is in Cape Town having arrived in late October 1899 and walked off the ship and into a firestorm. His orders to General White in Natal had been ignored, White had allowed Colonel Penn Symons to move north of…
5 Nov 2017 17 min

Episode 6 - "Mournful Monday" as the British suffer a major defeat

Sir Redvers Buller the commander in chief of British Forces in South Africa, sailed into the harbour on the Dunottar Castle on 31st October 1899, with his warhorses, polo sticks and a bicycle, and Winston Churchill the young war reporter in tow. He was to arrive as the British experienced…
29 Oct 2017 18 min

Episode 5 - Retreat from Dundee and the siege of Mafeking and Kimberley

In October 1899 the Boers have begun to invade Natal and are about to threaten Ladysmith. It’s only two weeks after the war began on 10th October and at first the British believed they’d won two small battles at Talana Hill overlooking Dundee and Elandslaagte station north of Ladysmith.
22 Oct 2017 18 min

Episode 4 - Talana Hill & Elandslaagte

In this episode we’ll learn about the first battle of Dundee or what’s known as Talana Hill, and Elandslaagte a day later. Both appeared at first to be British victories .. but appearances can be deceptive.
15 Oct 2017 18 min
120 – 140