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, Piaure PMt, September
9, 1939
HOW
THE
BOERS
FOUGHT:
A
Cammando in Action -
Fine
mar~nship,
mobility and knowledge
o/the- count~
favo.uredthe
Boo/-~. ,
But ,~
the
w~r.
went
on
aiul British
reinjorcement~
were poured into South '
Africa they were overwhelmed. In February
1900,
the
tt4e
began,
to
turn
m
favour of the BntlSh. But the war went on for two more years , Altngethe
r,
,
some
70;000
Boers and
300,000
British and Colonial tr0o..ps t90k part in the fighting.
London ' have been accused of com- days later, JamesoJ.1 had t'O surrender to
' A
telegram - s~nt
by-the
German,
Kaiser
plicity, or at l<$t of knowing the plans the Boer commandos called up to'.resist ';
c0~tulating
Kruger on having de- ,
and not -revealing them- to what was -the raid.
The-s~
.of-Rb,9des's-pat;t feated
the
raid 'Without haviPg
to
eall
on
then a friendly-government.
,'~
_ in the plot·came
t9
light, and;be
bad
to '
the help of
'~friendly Powe~,"
T,exlis- '
On
December 29,
1895, after arrange- . resign
~e
premieisbjp of
th~~cape.
- '-
perated Btitairi, bat enoourilged
$e
~ents
had
been
badly .bungled,
'Dr.
The ' Jameson Raid
s~ened"
BoerS'to beJieve that-when
the
real
War
Jameson led the raid from Pitsani, near Kruger's influence"in the Transv.,3al, and
ciune,
Germany or France or both
'Mafeking. But the foreigners were not made it certain that the'Free State would would help them.
ready for him, and the Boers were. Four support him in a war against Britain.
Tension grew while Kruger stead-
The Boer Forces
General Cronje, carrying a whip, with some of his men at the siege of Mafeking. Behind him
is
"Long Tom," the
94-pounder which was used
in
the bombardment of Mafeking. On the left of Cronje
is
Capt. Van der Merwe, another
well-known Boer officer.
38
fastly refused to grant an effective "
franchise to the non-Boers IDld
Chamberlain reiterated the
,ofsuzerainty over the Republics'
relations: Both sides prep!lfed for
4.
conference at BlOOuf01ltein failed,
, amid the cheers of an England
accustomed for forty years to serious '
war, troops were embarked for South ,'
Africa. While Britain was playing for
time to allow them to land, the Boers,
on October 9, 1899 presented
an
ultimatum, and the war began.
The war
(alls
into three stages. The
firsfwas a series ofquick Boer successes.
They were more prepared, they enjoyed
interior lines of communication and
higher mobility, they knew the country. _
The Boers invaded Natal, scored a series
of successes and laid siege to Lady-smith,
Kimberley and Mafeking. The British
KI ....
o""
estern Divisio
Cecil Rhodes was besieged
political reasons.
It
was effe