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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 36
Boer Tactics
Although the Boers are best known for their mobility and evasiveness, they did change their tactics
during the war. At times they carried out lightning attacks, and at others they took up siege warfare.
They used trenches in defence and concealment in the field, but also, on occasion, made attacks very
like classic cavalry charges. They were versatile and opportunistic which sometimes gave them the
advantage, but they were also poorly disciplined and easily discouraged and their lack of staying
power let them down.
At the outbreak of the war the Boers moved quickly in a large number of quite small groups,
permeating the British defences and eventually surrounding their enemies in Kimberley, Ladysmith
and Mafeking. From Ladysmith, in Natal, they might have gone on to the coast at Durban, but the
determination of their aged leader, Commandant-general Piet Joubert, failed and they fell back to
defend the Tugela River against the force seeking to lift the siege. The events in Natal illustrate the
first phase of the war.
In siege situations the Boers depended on tactics such as cutting off supplies to the besieged,
shelling the towns indiscriminately with their guns and occasionally attacking on foot. They were
aware of the dangers of illness and, at Ladysmith, were in the process of building a dam to cut off the
Klip River, the supply of drinking water. At the same time they had agreed a neutral zone for the sick
at Intombi camp and adhered to their promise to leave it safe. Neither the British nor the Boers
appeared to see any inconsistency in doing this while shelling civilians – men, women and children.
In defence the Boers made excellent use of the ground, exploiting natural cover and making it
difficult for the British to locate the source of rifle fire when smokeless powder was used. In Natal
they made their traditional good use of high ground which, on the Tugela where they overlooked the
lowlands from which the British approached, worked well until General Sir Redvers Buller
perfected his tactics of giving his infantry limited objectives and close artillery support. On the
approaches to Kimberley, on the other hand, the terrain was flat and open with occasional kopjes,
mesa-like hills, and a few rivers. Here the flat trajectory of the high-velocity rifle was exploited by
firing from concealed positions in trenches. This tactic worked until the British achieved superior
mobility and were able to outflank the Boer positions, at which the defenders abandoned their
trenches and moved off.
In the guerrilla phase of the war the main aggressive effort went into disrupting communications
by blowing up bridges, breaking up railway tracks and intercepting supply-wagon trains. At Waterval
Drift on 15 February 1900 Vecht-general Christiaan De Wet captured a supply train with a third of
the British oxen and a full four days’ supplies. However, he was so keen to squirrel away his plunder
that he was fatally slow in moving to the support of Assistant Commandant-general Cronjé at
Paardeberg. As the war continued and Boer sup-
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