Boer invasion of Natal in maps

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 Apartheid-era fiction of the Boer republics being the innocent victims in the war they started – which shows just how disingenuous and insidious these so-called ‘academics’ are. If they had the integrity to admit the truth of the invasion of Natal, then the rest of their comfort blanket of myths come tumbling down.

We have smashed the self-serving myth of the ‘defensive invasion’ dozens of times already, and if anyone is still stupid enough to think that looting and ransacking 150 miles into someone else’s country is not a ‘real’ invasion, then nothing is ever going to get them to remove their National Party issue blinkers. For those with keener intellects and more open-minds, however, the following maps might be interesting:

As the map makes clear, it is always worth noting that the first significant action of the invasion, the Battle of Talana Hill, was not fought until 20 October, or D+9 (ie. fully nine days after General Joubert’s Boers invaded Natal). This alone should be enough to prove that there were no British forces ‘massing on the border’.

Even after the British defeat at Nicholson’s Nek on 30 October (D+19), additional troops and – crucially – six Royal Navy guns made it into Ladysmith before the town was finally cut off on 2 Nov (D+22). Republican forces also demonstrated against Colenso that same day, prompting the withdrawal of the out-gunned Durban Light Infantry, who had dug in to defend the bridges there:

Of course, getting bogged down in a lengthy (and, ultimately, completely unsuccessful) siege was the exact opposite of what Smuts’ invasion plans called for, and every day the invading Boers spent dilly-dallying at Ladysmith was a Godsend to the hard-pressed, and still greatly outnumbered, Imperial garrison. Seemingly more interested in looting sprees and renaming Newcastle and Dundee, however, it is remarkable that the invading Boers wasted a whole week before trying to storm Ladysmith: an attempted assault which was swatted away by the garrison with contemptuous ease. No wonder this battle is barely known today – it simply does not fit the Apartheid regime narrative of the war.

His forces having proved to be incapable of taking Ladysmith by storm, Joubert was persuaded to leave the undefeated, division-sized, garrison in his rear, and push on towards Durban regardless:

Even then, Joubert’s drive to the coast only began on 13 November (D+33) – four days after the Boer defeat on 9 November, and an incredible 14 days after their victory at Nicholson’s Nek. This dithering had permitted additional Imperial reinforcements to be rushed to Natal, meaning Estcourt and Mooi River were by then both held by almost brigade-sized forces. Furthermore, both Pietermaritzburg and Durban were defended by scratch forces, with the latter also covered by the devastating firepower of the Royal Navy by this point, meaning any attempt to rush the port town would have been blasted to smithereens.

The inconclusive Battle of Willow Grange was fought in the early hours of 23 November (D+44), with republican scouts probing towards Nottingham Road the same day. Also on 23 November, about 50 miles over to the east, a Boer attempt to break through at Tugela Ferry was defeated by the Umvoti Mounted Rifles. More than six weeks after they invaded, and after an advance of 150 miles from their start line, these events marked the high water mark of the republican invasion of Natal. Joubert, who had been injured in a fall from his horse, finally realised he had missed his chance, and ordered his loot-laden forces to retreat to the Tugela.

Despite the latter-day myths of Boer martial brilliance, the republican invasion of Natal was thus an abject failure, and – thanks to the glacial speed of Joubert’s advance and the bulldog-spirit of the garrison – Durban was never seriously threatened. But, as these maps make abundantly clear, it was most certainly not a ‘defensive’ invasion, or a ‘pre-emptive’ invasion. Indeed, it was only because it was so comprehensively thwarted by the outnumbered and ill-prepared British and Natalian forces, that latter-day propagandists were able to convince simple-minded folk that it was an entirely innocent endeavour.