We are constantly told – with thinly-disguised delight – that only ‘a handful’ of Boers ‘took on the British Empire’ (and, err, lost). Were the Boers outnumbered by the British army? Eventually, yes – though certainly not at first, as they actually enjoyed a significant numerical advantage over the small, scattered, and unprepared Imperial garrison. But ‘eventually being outnumbered’ does not equate to there only being ‘a handful’ of them. The forces of Nazi Germany were also greatly outnumbered by the Red Army,[1] but I have never heard anyone breathlessly squealing that ‘a handful of Germans took on the Soviet Union’ (and also lost).
In reality, some 87,365 republicans[2] are confirmed to have fought in the Boer War[3] – a number which is certainly an under-estimate. Firstly, it ignores all the tens of thousands of black agterryers, ‘All behind-the-line services on commando were carried out by black people, who constructed fortifications, herded horses and cattle, drove wagons, and performed labour duties in military camps. Many burghers were accompanied by one (or more) of their servants who acted as an agterryer (after-rider), performing such tasks as supervising his employer’s horse, loading his rifles while in combat, and in exigent circumstances, fighting alongside him.’[4] It also fails to consider those Boers and rebels who fought but who simply slipped away back into civilian life at (or before) the surrender – there really is no way of ever knowing how many hundreds or thousands fit into this category. And it excludes those who were ‘bitter-einder adjacent’ throughout the guerrilla war – the sort of fellow who might never have given up their job as, say, a chemist or school master in a small town, but who would support the bands of desperados by supplying food, offering a safe place to hide up, or passing intelligence… and might even have produced a hidden Mauser to loose off a shot at a target of opportunity.[5]
The last point should hardly come as a surprise: during the 20th Century many terrorist / insurgent organisations were comparatively small in terms of active members, but were supported by a much larger informal network of sympathisers with varying degrees of involvement. The IRA of the 1980s, for example, only had about 300 active members[6] at any given point – but one cannot simply ignore the thousands of sympathisers who would support their nefarious efforts by stealing a car, passing information or messages, hiding a bag without asking questions, etc.
But even if we stick to the figure of 87,365 Boers, this is a rather strange idea of a ‘handful’ – and gets thrown about without any attempt to give the modern reader any sense of context. Rather than just going along with the myths, let’s take a moment to compare it to the size of the regular forces of some modern-day armies:
75,000 – Spain
73,000 – Great Britain
64,000 – Germany
50,000 – Argentina
38,500 – South Africa
32,000 – Australia
29,000 – Sweden
23,000 – Canada
21,000 – Netherlands
20,000 – Hungary
16,000 – Finland
14,000 – Portugal
9,000 – Belgium
So, though it pleases a certain type of person to squawk endlessly about ‘a handful of Boers’, what they really mean is, ‘more than twice the size of the modern-day South African army’, or ‘more than three times the size of the modern-day Canadian army’, or ‘more than five times the size of the modern-day Portuguese army’.
I wonder why they never use those rather-more-meaningful phrases instead?
NOTES:
[1] Though the numbers constantly changed, the Soviet forces peaked at some 12,000,000 men in the field – compared to a peak of about 3,500,000 German troops on the Russian Front
[2] ‘…the Transvaal raised 26,871 men initially, to which 14,779 were added later, while the Free State raised 21,345, to which 6,264 were added. Both states had a small regular force manning artillery, 800 men in the Transvaal, manning twelve fortress guns, 13 obsolete mountain guns and 21 Maxim ‘pom-poms’ (quick-firing 1-pounders), and 375 men in the Free State, manning nineteen field guns, four mountain guns and three Maxims … in addition 13,300 ‘rebels’ from the colonies of Natal and the Cape joined the commandos, as did 800 foreigners. There was also a Foreign Corps of 2,120, including 500 Irish, 320 Dutch, 200 Germans, 100 Scandinavians, 75 Italians, 50 French, 50 Americans, and 25 Russians. The Boer forces eventually totalled 87,365.’ – see, Carver, p.14
[3] Carver, The National Army Museum book of the Boer War, p.14
[4] Warwick, Black People and the South African War, 1899‒1902, p.11
[5] St Leger, With the Mounted Infantry at War, p.117
[6] Moloney, A Secret History of the IRA, p.xiv
Add Comment