Based on many years of research with regard to the Anglo-Boer War, this book is essential reading for anyone who would like to know more about the most devastating conflict that has thus far been waged between white people in Southern Africa. However, with due course, this war also involved more and more black, brown and, to some extent, Asian people.
Since the start of the Anglo-Boer War today 120 years ago thousands of publications, written or typed reports and other creations have been produced to narrate the war events, express opinions on its origins, causes, course, results and legacy and on participants in the struggle. This process is ongoing, since the debate amongst both professional historians and interested amateurs on exactly what happened and why is still raging and new information on the war still crops up. The history of the Anglo-Boer War is truly a neverending discourse. As the author of a number of books on the war, I have consulted hundreds of both published and unpublished sources. Some were of limited value, but a small percentage of the published books were of such high value that they formed part of a small stack of books that found a permanent home on my desktop while I was in the writing process. Pieter Cloete’s The Anglo-Boer War – A Chronology, both the original English version and the enlarged Afrikaans version published in 2010, was always part of that stack. It is to me a privilege to write a foreword for the user-friendly and meticulously researched book. It not only contains a wealth of information but a detailed source list and an extensive index. There are few, if any, more helpful reference books on the war and thus represents an essential resource to anyone with a more than superficial interest in the Anglo-Boer War. DR JACKIE GROBLER Historian and author Recently retired after 40 years at the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, The University of Pretoria.
"The Boer War was engaged in by British forces between Waterloo and the First World War. Troops from Britain and the Empire were sent to South Africa and tens of thousands of young men joined volunteer units to serve Queen and Country. This booklet suggests ways of researching the soldiers and sailors who saw action during the war"--Back cover.
The Boer War pitted the might of the British Empire (with more than half a million men mobilized) against 80,000 South African Boers--and this detailed and lavishly illustrated history goes right to the heart of the struggle. A timeline gives at-a-glance information on what spurred the conflict and how the events unfolded, while eyewitness accounts from soldiers of all ranks describe the brutality from both viewpoints. The in-depth narrative, by a renowned historian, studies the strategies, politics, and social implications of the strife, and looks at some of the major figures involved--including Winston Churchill. In more than 200 pictures, including hundreds of vintage photographs, follow the road to war, the first offensives, the guerrilla fighting, and finally the road to peace. Illuminating. The Boer War pitted the might of the British Empire (with more than half a million men mobilized) against 80,000 South African Boers--and this detailed and lavishly illustrated history goes right to the heart of the struggle. A timeline gives at-a-glance information on what spurred the conflict and how the events unfolded, while eyewitness accounts from soldiers of all ranks describe the brutality from both viewpoints. The in-depth narrative, by a renowned historian, studies the strategies, politics, and social implications of the strife, and looks at some of the major figures involved--including Winston Churchill. In more than 200 pictures, including hundreds of vintage photographs, follow the road to war, the first offensives, the guerrilla fighting, and finally the road to peace. Illuminating.
Victorious in its previous campaigns in Africa against native armies, Britain now confronted an altogether different foe. The Boers proved to be formidable opponents, masterfully compensating for inferior numbers with grim determination, resourcefulness and strong religious faith. Their mobility, expert use of cover, and knowledge of the terrain, in which they employed powerful long-range magazine rifles, gave them initial advantages. By contrast the British suffered from inadequate transport, insufficient mounted troops and poor intelligence. Despite marshalling the immense resources of their empire, the British were to be severely tested in a war which one general described as 'the graveyard of many a soldier's reputation'.
Hall (d 1996), a South African and former member of the British Army, was an amateur authority on artillery. He carried out research in libraries and private archives in South Africa to write this history of the Boer War in South Africa.
The Boers of South Africa responded to Britain's annexation of the gold-and-diamond-rich Transvaal region by declaring war on October 11, 1899. The English believed the fighting would be over by Christmas -- never dreaming they were on the brink of one of the longest, bloodiest, most costly and humiliating military campaigns in their history. Mammoth in scope and scholarship, as vivid, fast-moving and breathtakingly compelling as the finest fiction. Thomas Pakenham's The Boer War is the definitive account of this extraordinary conflict -- a war precipitated by greed and marked by almost inconcievable blundering and brutalities . . . and whose shattering repercussions can be felt to this very day.
