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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
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plies by railway from Portuguese East Africa were cut off, the need to acquire clothing, guns,
ammunition and even food from the British was added to the incentives to ambush and cut out small
contingents of their enemies. By that time, having no permanent territory under their control, the Boers
had nowhere to keep prisoners. They therefore took to uitskud,literally ‘shaking out’, that is, stripping
the British and releasing them naked to find their way back to their comrades.
On one occasion the attempt to promote disease was purposely undertaken. Bloemfontein was
supplied with water from waterworks at Sannaspos to the east of the town. It was to destroy these
works and to deny clean water to the town and both civilians and military there that De Wet went
there on 31 March 1900 and, by chance, encountered Brigadier-general R. G. Broadwood. The fact
that he won a famous victory there and that the waterworks survived should not obscure the fact that
the increase of typhoid (enteric) fever in Bloemfontein was De Wet’s primary objective.
On their Field Days, their training days, the Boers practised charging towards an objective and
opening fire upon it, either from horseback or dismounted. These tactics were rarely used in the field
but some examples exist, such as at Blood River Poort in northern Natal where Commandant-general
Louis Botha worsted Lieutenant-colonel Hubert Gough, and at Rooiwal where Lieutenant-colonel
Robert Kekewich destroyed a force of 1,500 Boers who charged him. Deneys Reitz gives a graphic
account of the foot charge made by the Boers against the Northumberland Fusiliers at Nooitgedacht
and the attack on Wagon Hill at Ladysmith also involved Boers advancing under fire, though the
terrain precluded a charge as such.
See also:
Blood River Poort, Action at; Colenso, Battle of; Ladysmith, Siege of; Nooitgedacht, Battle of;
Rooiwal, Battle of; Sannaspos, Battle of; Tugela Heights, Battle of.
Reference:
Marix Evans, Martin, The Boer War: South Africa 1899–1902 (Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1999);
Pretorius, Fransjohan, Life on Commando during the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902 (Cape Town,
Human & Rousseau, 1999).
Boer War, First (First War of Independence),
1880–81
The Transvaal regained its independence to a great extent, if not completely, as a result of a short,
sharp war in which the Boers, untrained amateur soldiers, defeated professional British soldiers of
approximately equal numbers. The British army felt the disgrace very deeply and, when the chance
presented itself, was eager to avenge this defeat. “Remember Majuba” became a war-cry.
In 1876 the Afrikaners fought an unsuccessful war against the Pedi nation in the northern
Transvaal and the burghers refused to pay the taxes required to meet the cost. In 1879 the British, in
spite of the provisions of the Sand River Convention of 1852 which granted autonomy to the
Transvaal,
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