War has broken out in South Africa and
British commanders are confident they
will soon crush the upstart Boer
republics who have dared to defy them
General White's troops facing boar
positions on The High Ground near
Ladysmith went nervously as British and
poor artillery duel overhead but the
neighboring British units have gone
silent and the order comes to retreat
bore artillery and Riflemen pour fire
onto the exposed British troops and they
withdraw in panic on this day the Empire
has been defeated but there's a long and
bloody war ahead it's the second Boer
War
[Applause]
thank you
[Music]
in the late 19th century conflict was
brewing in southern Africa the Dutch had
colonized the region from back in the
mid 17th century and the settlers
arrived in what became the cape Colony
they call themselves Africanus and spoke
their own dialect of Dutch known as
Africans but they were often simply
known as boers the Dutch word for Farmer
most of these settlers Farm plans that
They seized from the local native
population many of whom the Africanus
then enslaved in 1806 Britain captured
Cape Town during the Napoleonic Wars and
kept permanent control of the cape
Colony after 1815. but problems between
the British Administration and the poor
population soon emerged over language
cultural Outlook and legal systems The
Tipping Point came when Britain outlawed
slavery in 1834. this enraged The boers
Who relied on slave labor to work their
Farms between 1835 and 1840 the boers
migrated out of British territory in
what they called the Great Trek to find
new independent homelands in eastern
South Africa there they founded two new
Bora republics the orange free state and
the South African Republic work transfal
the new bore States maintained some
forms of slavery and expropriated their
land from native Africans
but the British bore struggle continued
the British Empire slowly expanded its
control of South Africa by taking over
more native African territories and by
the 1840s it shared a border with the
Boer republics frequent border
skirmishes blew up into the first war
war of 1880 1881. the Poors won the war
and forced the British government to
formally acknowledge boor Independence
and then came the transphile Gold Rush
Prospectors discovered enormous gold
deposits between 1884 and 1886.
immigrants from all over the British
Empire flooded to South Africa to seek
their fortune and the Newfound mineral
wealth of transphal Drew the interest of
British Statesmen and businessmen
foremost among these was Cape Colony
prime minister and Mining magnate Cecil
Rhodes who led the campaign to bring the
poor republics under British rule to
secure their natural resources for the
Empire but his scheme to overthrow the
poor governments using a force of
mercenaries in the Jamison raid of 1895
ended in Fiasco and alerted the boers to
the threat of British annexation despite
the failure of the Jameson raid Britain
relentlessly pressured the Boer
republics to make Territorial and legal
concessions by 1899 British troops were
massing in their colony of natal and the
boers feared an invasion was imminent so
rather than await the inevitable the
boers decided to strike first on October
11 1899 the second Boer War began
so The Boar's desire for Independence
and British Imperial expansion had come
to a head with the outbreak of war in
1899. so let's take a look at the
fighting forces that each side brought
to the battlefield
the boers did not possess a standing
army and instead relied on a malicious
system
times of War the government would muster
all able-bodied men between the ages of
16 and 60. citizens were expected to
arrive with their own rifle and horse
but the government also bought and
distributed thousands of German Mauser
rifles at the start of the war
the boers had no formal military
training but they were formidable
Fighters noted for their excellent
Marksmanship in peacetime poor citizens
developed their skill by hunting game
and through target shooting competitions
a practice noted by American journalist
Howard Hillegas
target shooting was the chief Amusement
in transfal demand for rifle ammunition
was constant and firing at marks May
almost be said to have taken the place
occupied by billiards in Europe
every boar fighter was a mounted
Rifleman they could move quickly and
seize key terrain before dismounting and
delivering a hail of accurate rifle fire
decades later Winston Churchill named
Britain's Special Forces after the
Africana word for military unit Commando
The Riflemen were backed by a small
professional artillery branch which
deployed a mixture of modern French and
German guns including four 155
millimeter kurzo guns which the British
nicknamed long Tong
the boers were motivated well-armed and
determined to defend their independence
they had about 60 000 Men available to
fight but their weakness was their
ability to sustain a long War
the boars relied on Military imports
from Europe their small population meant
that they could not afford a war of
attrition and they feared an African
Uprising ore attack from the Zulu
Kingdom they had to strike fast and win
a clear victory
the British army was immensely
experienced in colonial Warfare and with
250 000 troops it could field more men
than the Africanus one of them in fact
would be my great grandfather
the second Boer War would be the 226th
out of 230 wars fought during the reign
of Queen Victoria
the British won nearly all these
conflicts thanks to the Army's
advantages in discipline and technology
and tactics based on close formations
and crushing fire
but the Army had very little experience
of facing modern Firepower since the
colonial enemies it had defeated fielded
little more than a handful of
second-hand rifles Imperial troops would
face an unpleasant surprise under Boer
rifle and artillery fire still the
British Army in South Africa was
confident and seemed to have forgotten
its defeat at the hands of the boers in
1880-81. British military thinkers
reckoned Victory would be Swift and
decisive against a fragile boar Force
lacking in discipline
native black Africans also played a role
in the war officially both sides
declared that the conflict was a quote
white man's war and that the neutrality
of black Africans would be respected in
reality black Africans performed a
variety of roles for both belligerents
the boers use African forced labor to
provide transport and dig trenches while
the British hired thousands of Africans
for logistic work as well as native
Scouts and trackers some of whom fought
in uniform
the poor militias and the British army
were set to clash and when war broke out
in October 1899 the boers tried to make
the most of their window of opportunity
at the start of the war the boers
outnumbered British forces in South
Africa 40 000 to 20 000. since the
British were sure to send reinforcements
the poor plan emphasized speed and
aggression they would sweep into South
Africa and crush the British garrisons
before fresh troops arrived from the
United Kingdom
the boor Invasion had four main axes in
the west poor forces besieged the
railway town of mafiking to prevent
British forces advancing from the
direction of bichwana land in the
southwest the bores surrounded the
diamond mining Center of Kimberly and in
the South poor forces Advanced into the
cape Midland region to disrupt British
Rail transport the main boar offensive
though drove into natal the British had
most of their army here some fifteen
thousand men and had planned to use the
colony as a base to invade Boer
territory until the boers beat them to
it but British forces were poorly
deployed and Lieutenant General William
Penn Simon's four thousand strong
Detachment bore the brunt of the boor
attack on October 20th 1899 the first
pitch Battle of the war took place as
the boers got their artillery onto
talana Hill and bombarded Simon's Camp
below the British were surprised but
they quickly rallied and launched an
assault that drove the boers from the
High Ground the attack was a costly
success Simons was mortally wounded and
10 percent of his Force became
casualties the nature of the fighting
surprised even veteran British officers
like Captain Nugent of the first King's
Royal rifle Corps
the ground in front of me was literally
rising in dust from the bullets and the
din echoing between the hill and the
wood below and among the rocks from the
incessant fire of the Mausers seemed to
blend with every other sound into a long
drawn-out hideous Roar I looked round
over my shoulder the whole ground we had
already covered was strewn with bodies
at that moment I was hit through the
knee the actual shock was as if someone
had hit me with their whole strength
with a club
I spun round and fell my pistol flying
one way and helmet another
despite the victory at talana Hill the
British were in danger mobile boar
columns threatened to surround the
isolated Force which endured a harrowing
Retreat to join the main British
Garrison at Ladysmith British forces
moved North to clear the retreat route
and on October 21st a British column
struck advancing bores at the Battle of
elan's lachten a skillful British
combined arms attack drove the boars
from their positions before British
Cavalry swept in from the flank and
completed the route
yet the boar Advance into natal
continued by the end of October British
commander George White had two options
he could withdraw to the South and wait
for reinforcements from Britain this
would preserve his army but would cause
political problems if public opinions
saw it as too passive or he could attack
the boers and try for a decisive Victory
to defeat The Invasion this might turn
the tide of the war but it also ran the
risk of a disastrous defeat white chose
to gamble on October 30th he threw his
forces into action at the Battle of
Ladysmith but British attacks were badly
coordinated and the boers won a
significant Victory white retreated to
Ladysmith and the boers laid Siege to
the town
the opening weeks of the war had been a
success story for the boers they had
defeated Britain's Main Army in South
Africa and trapped it in Ladysmith if
the town were to fall the boers might
just win the war
in November 1899 a fresh British Army
was on its way to help relieve besieged
Imperial troops in Ladysmith its 45 000
men had left the UK at the start of the
war under the command of General Red vs
Buller Buller had planned to link up
with White's force and invade the boor
republics but the boar Siege of
Ladysmith forced him to scrap the idea
instead Buller split his force in three
fifteen thousand men would head West to
relieve Kimberly five thousand troops
would secure the cape Midland area and
puller himself would lead 20 000 men
into natal and break the siege of
Ladysmith and the British were in a
hurry to rescue the garrisons since
Buller could not be sure how long they
could actually hold out
since the British had to operate along
the railway lines surprise was
impossible the boers had time to prepare
defensive positions and were ready and
waiting on December 10th British troops
in the cape Midlands attempted a
complicated night march to surprise the
boers at dawn but the British column got
lost in the dark and when Dawn broke
they found themselves in the middle of
the poor position rather than on its
flank the desperate British launched a
doomed frontal assault and bore a
Rifleman mowed them down and won the
battle of stormberg
on the road to Kimberly Lord Methuen at
first drove the boers back but the
tables turned at the Battle of Maher's
Fontaine on December 11th once again the
British wanted to move up at night but
they were slowed by a thunderstorm and
were struck in the open at Sunrise the
boars pinned Them Down Under Fire and
the British retreated in disorder on
December 15th buller's Main Army
attacked boar positions on the tugaila
River on the way to Ladysmith British
artillery moved too far forward and the
boars quickly knocked out two batteries
the British infantry assault fared no
better and as they advanced in close
order boar Fighters ambushed them and
blasted the Imperial troops from three
sides
eighteen-year-old boor fighter denies
writes who later served in the British
Army in World War One recalled the
battle
we heard a British voice call out
bayonets bayonets and they came at us
like a wall we poured volley after
volley into their closely packed ranks
we delivered such a volume of fire that
the column swerved away to the left
any soldier who got amongst us was shot
or made prisoner
by mid-morning the Battle of kalenso was
over the British suffered over 1 000
casualties and lost 10 field guns while
only 38 poor Fighters were killed or
wounded in just one week the boers had
defeated the mighty British Empire three
times stunning UK public opinion and
causing the Times newspaper to refer to
the black week
by Christmas 1899 many in the Boer
republics thought that the war was all
but won even though the sieges continued
but the shock and humiliation of the
black weak had galvanized the Imperial
government in London after a string of
defeats in December 1899 London sent its
most famous Soldier to South Africa Lord
Roberts arrived in January 1900 along
with tens of thousands of reinforcements
from all over the Empire including
Canada New Zealand Australia and a
certain Mohandas Gandhi who served with
the Indian ambulance Corps at the Battle
of spionkop
Roberts began to reorganize the Army
including transport to free it from
Railways and new tactics to counter boor
Firepower
the British launched a new offensive on
February 10 1900. 50 000 men Advanced on
Kimberly and British Cavalry caught the
boers off guard by bursting through
their Siege lines and threatening their
line of retreat a British officer
described how the action evolved
the Enterprise appeared to us at first
as quite hopeless we believed only a few
of us could come out of it alive and had
we made a similar attack in training we
should certainly have all been put out
of action and have been looked upon as
idiots
when we galloped about a quarter of a
mile we received a very hot frontal and
flanking fire and I looked along the
ranks expecting to see the men falling
in masses but I saw no one come down
although the rifle fire was crackling
all around us the feeling was
wonderfully exciting just as in a good
run to House
the boars lifted The Siege and tried to
withdraw but with wagons and artillery
and Tow they couldn't outrun the British
so the boars unwisely dug in at pardeber
which allowed Imperial troops to
surround them after a 10-day Siege four
thousand boar Fighters surrendered on
February 27th was a crushing blow for
such a small army meanwhile in Natal
Buller continued his efforts to relieve
Ladysmith the boers were able to repel
British attacks at spionkop in January
and fall Kranz in February but another
British attack at the tegela Heights in
late February broke the Boer defenses
British artillery and infantry launched
methodical step-by-step attacks that
resembled the fighting of the first
world war and Ladysmith was relieved on
February 27th
the poor Army was severely weakened and
the British capitalized on their
victories by invading Orange Free State
and trans file they occupied
bloomfontaine in March and Pretoria fell
in June poor efforts to Halt the
Relentless events were overwhelmed by
British numbers and Firepower the last
pitch Battle of the war took place at
bergendal in transfal in late August
1900 as the boers struggled to hold
their last defensive line after several
days of fierce fighting the British
cleared the position and it seemed that
the war was over
by September 1900 the British had
occupied the Boer republics and
Scattered their armies Lord Roberts
proclaimed that the war had been won and
returned home to England as a Conquering
Hero but the boers refused to give in
and Unleashed a guerrilla War
in early 1900 the situation for the
boers was rapidly changing some were
commanders in particular Christian David
argued that the boers should adopt
Guerrilla war against Britain's
numerical Advantage there had already
been successful boar ambushes like the
attack on an armored train carrying War
correspondent Winston Churchill who made
an observation that would play a crucial
role in the next phase of the war
nothing looks more formidable and
impressive than an armored train but
nothing is in fact more vulnerable and
helpless it was only necessary to blow
up a bridge or Culvert to leave the
monster stranded far from home and help
at the mercy of the enemy
debate put his ideas into practice with
a spectacular gorilla attack at Santa's
post on March 31 1900. his Commandos
ambushed an unsuspecting British column
inflicting over 500 casualties and
capturing seven artillery pieces for the
loss of just eight men
debate would continue his Guerrilla
campaign with great success in 1900
ambushing isolated British columns and
destroying the railway on which the
British relied for supplies taking
advantage of boar mobility and knowledge
of the terrain debate could emerge from
the countryside to strike without
warning an easily eluded British
attempts to pursue his Commandos
following the defeat at the Battle of
bergendal in August the remaining boar
commanders decided that conventional
Warfare was futile and also turned to
Guerrilla War instead the boar campaign
began in Earnest from October under the
overall leadership of Louis Botha
Commandos attacked British columns and
Supply Depots but targeted The Rail
lines most of all lines were frequently
sabotaged and unguarded trains were
hijacked during one such hijacking a
surprised American businessman was
robbed at gunpoint by poor Fighters one
of them was Johannes stain
the American was stunned and as he
handed over his wealth he said but sir I
thought that this war was over I replied
you were misinformed this war is just
beginning
the British initially had no answer to
Boer gorilla tactics the commando's
speed and knowledge of the terrain made
them too elusive for slower British
columns to catch the British carried out
great sweeps of the countryside looking
for Commandos and placed faith in the
so-called prisoner count of boers that
they'd captured in reality most of the
prisoners were just Farmers or Drifters
seized by a passing British column
rather than actual boar Fighters
frustrated by continued bore resistance
and their inability to counter it the
British responded with brutality in
mid-1900 Lord Roberts ordered the
destruction of farms thought to be
supporting boar Gorillas with food or
ammunition his successor Lord Kitchener
took this measure much further from
December 1900 on British troops were to
burn all poor owned Farms regardless of
whether they supported the gorillas or
not this Relentless scorched Earth
campaign destroyed thousands of boar
farms and made about 150
000 civilians homeless
Kitchener also introduced the Blockhouse
system to limit Bohr Mobility block
houses were small easily constructed
pill boxes manned by eight Soldiers the
British built 8 000 block houses along
Rail lines and opposite River Crossings
each Blockhouse was linked to its
neighbors with wire obstacles creating a
permanent defended barrier which greatly
hindered Bohr movement
as with all Guerrilla Wars the fighting
was prolonged and brutal and both sides
inflicted cruelty on the civilian
population bore Commandos plundered
African villages and pro-british farms
for supplies and the British burned down
boar Farms combat between poor gorillas
and British columns usually took the
form of ambushes and was often close
ranged and exceptionally violent
the boers looted dead or captured
British soldiers for equipment and the
British responded by summarily executing
any poor fighter found to be using
British gear
kitchener's Relentless scorched Earth
policy created thousands of Boer
refugees and their treatment by the
British would lead to the creation of
concentration camps
the British had first considered a
refugee camp system for displaced boers
in May 1900 and set up several ad hoc
camps Kitchener made the system official
in December 1900 as his scorched Earth
policy created thousands of additional
refugees and the Concentration Camp
system was born
the British initially intended the camps
as Refugee centers that provided
accommodation food and medical care but
problems with the system soon emerged
the camps were short of Staff since the
Army argued that they were a civilian
issue and refused to provide officers
while civilian authorities felt that
they were a low priority and struggled
to find suitable administrative and
medical personnel as a result many of
the camps were badly organized
under-resourced and poorly run to worsen
the situation many camps were
constructed in locations without
adequate sanitation but the most
critical problem was chronic
overcrowding there were some 44 000 boar
civilians in the camps by March 1901 but
this had risen to 110 000 by December of
the same year these conditions led to
terrible outbreaks of disease like
measles and diphtheria which killed many
boars including children
was seven years old at the time
the camp was lice infested my aunt had
to cut all my hair off
thousands of newcomers arrived at the
camp hudrids became sick
the Marquee Hospital tents were always
full the doctors worked day and night
people died like rats
carts came down the rows of tents to
pick up the Dead
there were funerals every day
[Music]
the shocking state of the concentration
camps was exposed by British Aid worker
Emily hobhouse in May 1901. her damning
report caused worldwide outrage against
Britain
it presses hardest on the children they
droop in the terrible heat and with
insufficient unsuitable food whatever
you do whatever the authorities do and
they are I believe doing their best with
very limited means it is all only a
miserable patch on a great ill
the British government appointed
suffragette Millicent faucet to lead an
official investigation her report
confirmed hobhouse's findings and
recommended major reforms from November
1901 onwards the camps came under formal
civilian control and conditions steadily
improved by the end of the war in May
1902 the monthly mortality rate in the
camps was lower than that of the pre-war
bore republics but these British
measures came too late for tens of
thousands of poor civilians
the British also created a parallel Camp
system for black civilians these camps
were intended to be self-sufficient and
had even fewer resources than the camps
for the boers Hub house never had a
chance to visit these camps and the
faucet commission ignored them entirely
all told about 27 000 boar civilians
died of whom 22 000 were children under
the age of 16. at least 25 000 black
civilians also died in camps bringing
the death toll to a minimum of 52 000.
the brutal Guerrilla War took a terrible
toll on South Africa both sides had
suffered thousands of military
casualties large parts of the country
had been destroyed and over one hundred
thousand civilians were interned in
camps in 1902 it finally came to an end
by early 1902 the remaining boar
Fighters were exhausted British scorched
Earth tactics denied them supplies and
the Blockhouse system limited their
movement the Commandos were also
struggling to accommodate some ten
thousand poor civilians who were
Sheltering in the wilderness to avoid
falling into British hands these
civilians lacked food shelter and
medical supplies and suffered so badly
that in some cases boar Fighters took
them to the gates of concentration camps
and left them for the British to take
them in
board Commandos calculated that there
was no longer any Prospect of Victory
and continued fighting would only
prolong the suffering of the poor
population it had indeed been a bloody
struggle the British army suffered over
100
000 casualties including 22 000 dead and
poor military losses are estimated to be
about 30 000 with 9 000 dead
faced with this Grim reality the Poor's
open negotiations with the British which
led to the peace in May 1902 the boers
would surrender but be granted amnesty
the British promised to protect the
Dutch language the poor republics were
absorbed into the Empire but would get
self-government in due course and the
discussion of black African voting
rights would be delayed until
self-government
the second Boer War shocked Britain
which reformed its Army and soon found
new allies in Japan France and Russia it
was also a baptism of fire for many
officers that would later play an
important role during the first World
War
the conflict foreshadowed many of the
horrors of the 20th century battlefields
and was a dark premonition of modern
warfare's Horrors for civilians
we'd like to thank Spencer Jones the
author of the book from Boer War to
World War for his help with this episode
and we'd like to thank Tanya for helping
me wrestle with Afrikaans pronunciation
as usual you can find all our sources
for this episode in the video
description I'm Jesse Alexander and this
is the Great War a production of
real-time history and the only YouTube
History Channel that still thinks
armored trains are really cool even if
Winston Churchill disagrees
thank you
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