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

60 – 80

Episode 83 - Boer Secret Service Spy Johanna van Warmelo and the Petticoat Commando

In this episode Easter Sunday had come and gone on the 7th April and for most combatants stretched across the vastness of the South African veld, it was characterised by fear and loathing. The concentration Camps were filling and women and children were beginning to die of diseases like enteric…

21 Apr 2019 20 min

Episode 82 - Aborigine trackers, the Great Comet Viscara and the case of Gideon Scheepers

Deneys Reitz had broken his own leg in a freak accident and was still hobbling about, his compound fracture causing some pain. General de la Rey ordered him to a small medical camp behind the lines near Hartbeespoort which is west of Pretoria. There he was recovering when the British…

14 Apr 2019 17 min

Episode 81 - Black participation in the Boer War and Reitz breaks a leg

Deneys Reitz will experience a terrible wound to his leg and we will probe an issue that caused much gnashing of teeth - the role of Black South Africans in the war. A quick note for my American listeners, in South Africa people who are mixed race are known as…

7 Apr 2019 20 min

Episode 80- A Boer Rodeo near Swart Ruggens & General Bindon Blood makes his dashing appearance

When we ended last week, Deneys Reitz had rejoined General de la Rey along with his Dopper companions, and had been regaled by the prophet, van Rensburg in late March 1901. The General was aware that the British drives were beginning to pay off - that was Kitchener’s plan to…

31 Mar 2019 17 min

Episode 79 - Reitz meets the Doppers and a wild-eyed prophet as the Gold Mines chug back to life

Episode 79 is full of strange swirling tales where Deneys Reitz our intrepid Boer narrator has been separated from his brother near Rustenberg after riding to fetch his all important saddle bags. Then to make matters much worse, his only remaining horse died. This left the youngster in a pickle,…

24 Mar 2019 18 min

Episode 78 - American blockhouses from Cuba and the enigma that was the pro-Boer John Tengo Jabavu

The ides of March were upon the British in South Africa as they continued chasing the ghost generals, Smuts, de la Rey, Beyers, de Wet across a cooling landscape that had begun its Southern Hemisphere Autumn in 1901. This week we’ll probe an American invention in Cuba called the Blockhouse…

17 Mar 2019 22 min

Episode 77- Kitchener’s peace talks fail and De Wet experiences a miracle

Episode 77 and the Great de Wet hunt sees the English cornering their quarry in the North East Cape Colony, close to Hopetown. The mercurial Boer general Christiaan de Wet has given up the plan to invade the Cape Colony and he’s doing all he can to remain on the…

10 Mar 2019 21 min

Episode 76 - Labram loses his head, darkness is De Wet’s salvation & Peace Talks begin

This week we continue learning about Americans in the war and ride with Christiaan de Wet as he scurries back across the Orange River - his attempts at invading the Cape ending in failure. There are also unusual peace moves afoot and a meeting between Lord Kitchener and Boer General…

3 Mar 2019 22 min

Episode 75 - Cowboys, Theodore Roosevelt & Americans in the Anglo-Boer War

This week I'm focusing on America and Americans who fought in the war. What made Americans travel half way around the world to fight for both the Boers and the English? The initial answer is obvious - given the Boer’s attempts at forging independence from the British Empire, something the…

24 Feb 2019 19 min

Episode 74 - Louis Botha surprises the British near Ermelo & De Wet crosses a swamp in the Karoo.

The guerrilla campaign is moving ahead swiftly, while in the northern Cape, the Great De Wet Hunt is in full swing. In the Eastern Transvaal, General Louis Botha had attacked the British in a surprise move on 10 February adding to the confusion the English troops were experiencing. Between Christiaan…

17 Feb 2019 20 min

Episode 73 - Malperd Dies, the ACC disbands & The Great De Wet Hunt begins

This week Deneys Reitz finds himself walking, while the Great de Wet Hunt begins in the Northern Cape and Free State. I would like to thank listeners for the wonderful messages I've received and suggestions about topics for future casts. Over the last year a number of listeners have asked…

10 Feb 2019 17 min

Episode 72 - Breaker Morant, Bulala Taylor and a British Military War Crimes Court Case

This week we explore incidents involving Australians based in Pretoria who committed war crimes and were executed. But what really happened? I’m going to try and detach the myth from the reality about Breaker Morant, Bulala Taylor and the First Ever British Military War Crimes Court Case. It must not…

3 Feb 2019 19 min

Episode 71 - Russia’s role in the Anglo-Boer War

This week its all about Russians and with good reason. ‘I am wholly preoccupied with the war between England and the Transvaal,’ Tsar Nicholas wrote to his sister at the outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899. ‘Every day I read the news in the British newspapers from the…

27 Jan 2019 21 min

Episode 70 -Queen Victoria dies and Emily Hobhouse travels to a Concentration Camp

General Christiaan de Wet was gearing up for his attack on the Cape Colony. While that only took place in the last week of January 1901, his brother, Piet, whom he hated, was trying to convince the Boers to give up the fight. Remember Piet was the brother who had…

20 Jan 2019 18 min

Episode 69 - The Machine called Lord Kitchener sets the veld ablaze

There’s going to be a lot of riding in this episode, much fighting, and some shock as the Boers in the field begin to observe at first hand the new British policy of scorched earth where all Boer property is destroyed in an attempt to bring them to heel. What…

13 Jan 2019 19 min

Episode 68 - Douglas Haig ditches whiskey to hunt Kritzinger and Reitz meets a Crazy Horse.

It’s New Year 1901 and the Boers have been busy over the Christmas Period. Jan Smuts and Koos de la Rey defeated General Clements in the Magaliesberg. Two Boer commandos have also entered the Cape Colony and attacked British positions at various locations. On the 28th December a commando attacked…

6 Jan 2019 18 min

Episode 67 - Media censorship, portable cameras and Fake Victory propaganda.

In this episode, I thought we should concentrate on the role that the media and propaganda played as the war moved from conventional to unconventional, from military camps to concentration camps. Despite Lord Robert’s declaration that the Boers were defeated followed his direct march from Cape Town to the Orange…

30 Dec 2018 20 min

Episode 66 - Lord Kitchener perfects the Concentration Camp & Boers begin shooting traitors

It’s approaching Christmas 1900, but there’s no champagne for Broadwood who is based in Rustenburg west of Pretoria. That’s because the Boers first ransacked his supply convoy then attacked General Clements in the Magaliesberg. General Koos de la Rey was largely responsible for both upsets, along with Smuts and Beyers…

23 Dec 2018 19 min

Episode 65 - Mark Twain barks at Churchill as Reitz shoots a British soldier with a dumdum

On 12th December 1900, and in the United States, Winston Churchill was about to deliver a lecture about his experiences as a war reporter in South Africa, covering the Anglo-Boer War. Exactly a year earlier to the day on 12th December 1899, he’d escaped from a Boer prison in Pretoria,…

16 Dec 2018 22 min

Episode 64 - De Wet’s flood, de la Rey's victory & Canadians shoot up a Cape Town bar

This week its back to the guerrilla war but there are challenges for both sides. Not least being the weather. This had a major impact on Boer general Christiaan de Wet in particular, because a drought through November 1900 meant there was no easy way for him to move into…

9 Dec 2018 19 min