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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 32
Boer military action was based on the commando system. This had been contrived to meet the
needs of a farming people extending their land-holdings in the face of opposition from indigenous
peoples. The country was arranged in local districts and each district had to provide a commando,
manned by its citizens or burghers. Every man between sixteen and sixty years of age was liable to
serve, those between eighteen and thirty-four going first, then those up to fifty years and, in the last
resort, those up to sixty years. The system created formations of different sizes. Thaba ’Nchu
commando numbered 98 men while Pretoria had 2,832. Commandos were sub-divided into wards,
each of which elected its commander, a Field Cornet who might have an Assistant Field Cornet to aid
him.
The Transvaal (South African Republic) State Artillery was a well-disciplined force,
uniformed, and commanded by Lieutenant-colonel S. P. E. Trichardt. It numbered 733 men and was
equipped with four 155mm Creusots (Long Toms), four 120mm Krupp howitzers, fourteen 75mm
quick-firing guns and five other 75mm guns. There were twenty-two 37mm Maxim-Nordenfelt PomPoms and another twenty-two guns of various kinds. The Orange Free State Artillery was just as
professional but smaller, with 474 men, and much less well equipped. It had fourteen breech-loading
75mm Krupps and seven 9-pounder rifled breech-loading Armstrongs, together with seven other old
guns. It was commanded by the Prussian-born Major F. W. R. Albrecht.
The ZARP, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Politie or South African Republic Police, were 1,545
strong. The Johannesburg Police were particularly unpopular with the uitlandersor incomers who left
to fight on the British side as a result of the oppressive treatment the latter had endured before the
war. These men, like the 150 Orange Free State Police, were well-disciplined and professional.
In the course of the war, particularly in the guerrilla phase, the commandos tended to break up
because of casualties and departures. The remaining men formed units of their own such as the
Afrikander Cavalry Corps which Commandant Malan put together to oppose the invasion of the
Transvaal. The scout, Danie Theron, of whom Christiaan De Wet thought so highly, headed a
formation known as Theron’s Scouts and there were a number of similar units.
The foreign volunteers were formed partly from men already in South Africa and partly from
people who came expressly to fight in the Boer cause. Amongst the former were the German Corps,
the Hollander Corps,
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