Memoirs of the Boer War
Memoirs of the Boer War

Author: Jan Christiaan Smuts

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13:

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On the afternoon of Monday 4 June 1900, the young State Attorney of the South African Republic bade a sad farewell to his wife and child whom he was never to see again and left Pretoria to join the Boer commandos. He had braved shot and shell to put the government's sole source of finance for the continuing war - less than half a million pounds sterling in gold and coins - on a special train to President Kruger in the Eastern Transvaal. The next day, Lord Robert's army entered the capital. Jan Smuts came to play an important role in the South African war of 1899-1902. His memoirs are recorded here, and they present an account of the critical events from the fall of Pretoria to the reorganization of the commandos in December that year.

London to Ladysmith
London to Ladysmith

Author: Winston Churchill

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0486475433

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A vivid, personal account of the conditions under which the Boer War was fought, this volume contains dispatches the future statesman wrote in 1899 and 1900 as a newspaper correspondent.

Boer Boy
Boer Boy

Author: Chris Schoeman

Publisher: Struik Publishers

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781770221383

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The Boer War is an event that has captured the imagination of readers more than most other events in South African history have. Based on original documents that have not been published before. This is the touching personal narrative of a ten-year-old farm boy's harrowing but fascinating experiences during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. Charles d

Happy Odyssey
Happy Odyssey

Author: Adrian Carton de Wiart

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2007-11-13

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1848849184

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The legendary British Army officer recounts his experiences in the Boer War and both World Wars in this memoir with a foreword by Winston Churchill. Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart had one of the most extraordinary military careers in the history of the British Army. His gallantry in combat won him a Victoria Cross and a Distinguished Service Order, as well as an eyepatch and an empty sleeve. His autobiography is one of the most remarkable of military memoirs. Carton de Wiart abandoned his law studies at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1899 to serve as a trooper in the South African War. During World War I he served both in British Somaliland and on the Western Front, where he lost his left eye to a bullet at the Battle of Somme. He went on to serve as a liaison officer with Polish forces, narrowly escaping the German blitz at the outbreak of World War II. He was part of the British Military Mission to Yugoslavia, taken prisoner by the Italian Army, and made numerous attempts at escape. He spent the remainder of the war as Churchill’s representative in China. The novelist Evelyn Waugh famously used Carton de Wiart as the model for his character Brigadier Ben Ritchie Hook in the Sword of Honour trilogy. In this thrilling autobiography, the legendary officer tells his own remarkable story.

Commando: a Boer Journal of the Boer War
Commando: a Boer Journal of the Boer War

Author: Deneys Reitz

Publisher:

Published: 2016-10-21

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9781539656807

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Deneys Reitz was 17 when the Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899. Reitz describes that he had no hatred of the British people, but "as a South African, one had to fight for one's country." Reitz had learned to ride, shoot and swim almost as soon as he could walk, and the skills and endurance he had acquired during those years were to be made full use of during the war. He fought with different Boer Commandos, where each Commando consisted mainly of farmers on horseback, using their own horses and guns.Commando describes the tumult through the eyes of a warrior in the saddle. Reitz was fortunate to be present at nearly every one of the major battles of the war. Commando is a straightforward narrative that describes an extraordinary adventure and brings us a vivid, unforgettable picture of mobile guerrilla warfare, especially later in the war as General Smuts and men like Reitz fought on, braving heat, cold, rain, lack of food, clothing and boots, tiring horses.

With the Boer Foreign Legion
With the Boer Foreign Legion

Author: J. Y. F. Blake

Publisher:

Published: 2013-07

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9781782821229

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The Irish and European Brigades in Boer service in South Africa By virtue of its abiding and justified fame, the term 'Foreign Legion' is usually thought to mean the standing force in the service of France. However, this is by no means the only example of a mercenary force, either in present times or throughout the history of military conflict. Some legions like those of the French and Spanish became part of the permanent military establishment and some have come and gone motivated by pay. Others have been raised specifically in time of war and have been manned by those driven by conviction, principle or the spirit of adventure, to serve causes not naturally their own. The Spanish Civil War famously had its International Brigades. When the Boers in South Africa rose against the might of the British Empire at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, they too attracted soldiers of fortune. Some, no doubt, were motivated to support an underdog against imperial oppression and others simply saw themselves as natural enemies of the British and were ready to take them on whenever and wherever the opportunity presented itself. The authors of the works in this special Leonaur volume belonged in each 'camp.' The French aide to de Villebois-Mareuil was able to dine amiably with English officers while travelling to the theatre of war, whereas the American, Blake, indentified in every way with the convictions of his 'Irish Brigade' comrades and roundly hated his enemy. This book provides unusual perspectives and often discomforting insights into the sharp end of the Boer War and will fascinate all those interested in the subject. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

Hero of the Empire
Hero of the Empire

Author: Candice Millard

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2016-09-20

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 0385535740

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From the bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic, this thrilling biographical account of the life and legacy of Wintson Churchill is a "nail-biter and top-notch character study rolled into one" (The New York Times). At the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England. He arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels and jumpstart his political career. But just two weeks later, Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape—traversing hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him. Bestselling author Candice Millard spins an epic story of bravery, savagery, and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters—including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Mohandas Gandhi—with whom Churchill would later share the world stage. But Hero of the Empire is more than an extraordinary adventure story, for the lessons Churchill took from the Boer War would profoundly affect twentieth century history.

The Great Boer War
The Great Boer War

Author: Byron Farwell

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2009-09-19

Total Pages: 920

ISBN-13: 1783830611

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The story of the battle for independence from the British Empire in South Africa by “a vivid chronicler of military forces, generals, and wars” (Kirkus Reviews). The Great Boer War (1899-1902), more properly known as the Great Anglo-Boer War, was one of the last romantic wars, pitting a sturdy, stubborn pioneer people fighting to establish the independence of their tiny nation against the British Empire at its peak of power and self-confidence. It was fought in the barren vastness of the South African veldt, and it produced in almost equal measure extraordinary feats of personal heroism, unbelievable examples of folly and stupidity, and many incidents of humor and tragedy. Byron Farwell traces the war’s origins; the slow mounting of the British efforts to overthrow the Afrikaners; the bungling and bickering of the British command; the remarkable series of bloody battles that almost consistently ended in victory for the Boers over the much more numerous British forces; political developments in London and Pretoria; the sieges of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley; the concentration camps into which Boer families were herded; and the exhausting guerrilla warfare of the last few years when the Boer armies were finally driven from the field. The Great Boer War is a definitive history of a dramatic conflict by the author of Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, “a leading popular military historian” (Publishers Weekly).