In the first months of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) the British suffered a series of catastrophic defeats - the Boers had defeated them in Natal, besieged three British towns and General Cronjé now sat astride the railway line between Cape Town and the besieged town of Kimberley. In response the British initiated an audacious manoeuvre to outflank Cronjé which culminated in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war, the Battle of Paardeberg. The outcome was uncertain for both sides - would the British prevail or would the Boers continue to hold the upper hand?
Sir It is understood that you have armed Bastards, Fingoes and Baralongs against us - in this you have committed an enormous act of wickedness...reconsider the matter, even if it cost you the loss of Mafeking... disarm your blacks and thereby act the part of a white man in a white man's war. Signed General Cronje 29th October 1899 General Cronje's orders are clear; take Mafeking and drive the British out of Africa but Colonel Baden-Powell, Mafeking's commanding officer, is no ordinary soldier and his defence of the town will be no ordinary fight. Themba Jabulani is a victim of a white man's war. A war where there are strange rules. A war where innocents will be sacrificed and heroes will be made. Jabulani is one of the innocents, struggling to survive with his wife and young child. Cronje's letter signals the start of the Boer War and a siege that will last seven months, claiming an unknown number of lives. A White Man's War is a story that takes place during that siege, the Siege of Mafeking. The defenders of Mafeking were commanded by an unconventional man who played to win, regardless of the cost. Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, B-P to his friends was an experienced soldier and a ruthless maverick. The Boer War and Mafeking in particular would make him more famous than his godfather, the railway engineer he was named after. It would make him a Baron and change the way future wars would be conducted. Ignoring conventional principles of war, B-P invented new ways to defend the town. Outnumbered and outgunned, his men would thwart the Boers time and again. Mafeking was a strange gentleman's war punctuated by truces, cricket matches and ferocious fighting. The price for holding Mafeking would be enormous but it wouldn't be the Christian white people who would pay the largest share, it would be the natives, the innocent bystanders caught up in the white man's fight for South Africa. A White Man's War is a story of a siege, regarded by some as a great adventure but by others as a human tragedy. B-P would learn from Mafeking and go on to found the greatest youth movement the world had ever seen while others, less fortunate like Themba Jabulani, would suffer a very different fate.
South African born and bred, David Rattray's name is today synonymous with the Anglo-Zulu War. Now for the first time, his encyclopaedic knowledge is available to the reading public. With its magnificent colour artwork, including superb paintings, detailed maps and lively and informative text, this book will be greatly welcomed by both readers at home and visitors to the sites themselves.
At some 40 miles in length, the River Windrush is the longest of the Cotswolds tributaries of the River Thames. Its source is in the heart of the Gloucestershire Cotswolds and its confluence in the flatlands of the Oxfordshire Thames basin. During its journey the Windrush flows through beautiful rolling landscapes and quintessentially English villages and towns with delightful names such as Temple Guiting, Temple Power, Great Rissington and Bourton-on-the-Water. In this guide, Martin Marais provides walkers the chance to walk the entire length of the river along a 48-mile route which he designed for his own enjoyment. Starting at the source of the River Windrush, near the hamlet of Taddington, the walk continues through the heart of the Cotswolds, through remote peaceful countryside and bustling Cotswolds towns and finally onto its confluence with the Thames at Newbridge where well-earned refreshments can be had from a choice of two hostelries. This guide contains a wealth of useful maps, information, historical facts and glorious photographs and will be a valuable companion to anyone walking the Windrush Meander.
On a spring morning in 1903, Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald, one of Britain's greatest military heroes, took his life in a hotel room in Paris. A few days later he was buried hastily in an Edinburgh cemetary as his fellow countrymen tried to come to terms with the fact that one of Scotland's most famous soldiers had ended his life rather than face charges against his character.The suicide and its aftermath created a national scandal and one which still reverberates long after those dramatic events - it is now clear that the official files dealing with his case, the papers of the Judge Advocate have been destroyed. Macdonald or 'Fighting Mac' as he was known to an adoring public, was no ordinary soldier. A crofter's son who had risen from the ranks in the Victorian army, he covered himself with glory during a long and successful military career and in 1898 was widely acknowledged as the true hero of the Battle of Omdurman, which cemented British Imperial rule in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Everything lay at his feet - a knighthood, honours, the respect of fellow generals such as Roberts and Kitchener - but Macdonald's career came to a shocking full stop when he stood accused of homosexuality and was ordered to face a court martial. Unable to come to terms with the disgrace, he committed suicide. That should have been the end of his story but so powerful was the myth created by Fighting Mac that people refused to believe he was dead. Soon rumours were circulating that Macdonald had faked his death and had adopted the persona of a prominent Prussian officer, the future Field Marshal August con Mackensen, one of Germany's great leaders during the First World War. FIGHTING MAC tells the true story behind his disgrace and sheds new light on the myths....
The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) was fought between the tiny South African Boer republics and the mighty British Empire. For the British it was a foretaste of the devastating power of the modern weaponry they would face in the First World War and they suffered a series of catastrophic defeats. In response Field Marshal Frederick Roberts initiated one of the most audacious manoeuvres of the war. His objective was to outflank General Pieter Cronjé and his Boer army which sat astride the route to the besieged town of Kimberley. The move would culminate in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war, the Battle of Paardeberg. The outcome of the battle was far from certain for either man. Would it be Lord Roberts or General Cronjé who prevailed?
This “fascinating” biography of a South African-born warrior provides a window into a full century of military conflicts(Adam Makos, New York Times–bestselling author of A Higher Call). Four-War Boer traces Pieter Krueler’s highly colorful life from the Second Boer War, where he first served as a fourteen-year-old scout, to his service in World War I with the German army in East Africa to the Spanish Civil War to World War II, this time with the Allies, and on into the latter part of the twentieth century, when he served as a mercenary during the 1960s Congo Crisis. Later, in his eighties, he became a civilian trainer for the original Selous Scouts of Rhodesia and, later still, a trainer for South African commandos. The book follows Krueler through a remarkable career that included, among other adventures, leading native African soldiers on extremely dangerous missions in the Belgian Congo; volunteering as a mercenary during the Spanish Civil War, during which he worked with the Pyrenees Basque movement; serving as a coast watcher to keep South Africa safe from German incursion; and fighting alongside Michael Hoare during the 1960s Congo Crisis. A chapter is devoted to the formation of Rhodesia’s highly elite Selous Scouts, along with highlights of several previously classified missions. This material includes a wealth of new information, and breaks the secrecy surrounding Rhodesian and South African special operations, as unveiled through the experience of a man who was a founding father of counterinsurgency in Africa. Based on six years of historical research through hard-to-find secondary and published primary sources, as well as extensive interviews with Krueler himself, and interviews with German officers and others who knew and worked with him, this biography is filled with extensive first-person testimony that gives it the immediacy of a memoir.
