Fought on this day, back in 1900, the Battle of Wagon Hill saw the Imperial garrison decisively defeat a Boer attempt to storm the perimeter defences to the south of the besieged town of Ladysmith. It was a battle which raged all day, across a...
There are, of course, dozens of ludicrous myths about the Boer War. Some favourite old chestnuts are that scheming British capitalists were desperate to steal gold ‘n’ diamonds, the bumbling Tommies marched shoulder-to-shoulder to their deaths...
It has been a few years since I released The Boer War Atlas, but my new book – Eating Bananas in Durban – is finally finished, and available to order: https://igobooks.co.za/product/product-category/eating-bananas-in-durban/ After many years of...
‘I hope I have practically made it clear that I never attacked on the 15th [December 1899] at all. I have been accused of having done so, and it has been said that every military man condemned the execution of the attack. But I made no attack. I...
As far as the Siege of Ladysmith goes, the raid against the Boer Long Tom and Howitzer on Gun Hill is a bit of an epic. Launched on the night of 7/8 December by men of the Natalian regiments and the Imperial Light Horse, it was a splendid...
I was recently sent this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nctCxH5ADSA Very early on, I was amused to be informed that the Boer War was: ‘the largest and most expensive war that the British Empire engaged in between the Napoleonic Wars and...
Regular readers of this blog will know that there is a panic-stricken desperation within certain sectors of South African academia to pretend that the Boer invasion of Natal was not a ‘real’ invasion. This is, of course, only done to maintain to...
I never had the pleasure of meeting Peter Dickens, but we chatted almost daily over the last couple of years, and I was saddened to learn of his recent passing. As well as being devastating for his family, his loss will also been keenly felt by...
When it is pointed out to True Believers – even those who pose as academics – that the Boer War was started by the Boer republics declaring war on the British Empire and invading British territory, the panic-stricken reaction is as predictable as...
On the 11th of November, 1965 – exactly 60 years ago today – the Rhodesian cabinet issued their Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Rhodesia’s Prime Minister, Ian Smith, made it clear that Rhodesia’s issue was with...
I was recently made aware of this outlandish statement on one of the various Boer War Facebook sites: Of course, and as we all know, the True Believers simply make things up to try to keep their myths of victimhood stumbling on a little longer...
I was recently made aware that a Defender of Apartheid-era Myth posted this extraordinary claim online: The narrative that the Boer Republics fell into a trap set by the British to dismantle them is not purely a National Party or Afrikaner...
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