For those without any sort of military background, some of the nomenclature of the units which served in the Boer War can be a little bewildering. This is especially so, given that unit sizes / names have changed over time leading to yet more...
Well, Christmas is here again, so compliments of the season to those who follow this Blog, and it seemed an appropriate time of year to do a short piece on how Yuletide 1899 was celebrated by those besieged in Ladysmith. Republican invasion...
There are a great many myths and misconceptions which surround the Boer War, but arguably the biggest of the lot is that of ‘who started it?’. On the face of it, this is a fairly straight-forward question to answer – or so one would think. It is...
I was staying at a Lodge in the Natal Battlefields earlier this year and got chatting to one of the other guests. Upon hearing that I had written a bit on the Boer War, he asked me what I think is probably the $64,000 question: “There’s one thing...
A visit to Pretoria’s Fort Klapperkop (and the attached South African Defence Force Memorial) is well worth it and makes for an interesting afternoon out. Entry is very cheap, the Fort is well preserved and there is plenty to see there – indeed...
There are those who, for whatever reason, delight in declaring that virtually every advance in modern warfare was ‘taught’ to the world by the wily old Boers. One of the more widely accepted such claims is that the British were so impressed by...
In one of the more thoughtful reviews of Kruger, Kommandos & Kak, it was mentioned that I use the name ‘the Boer War’ to describe the conflict, and then suggested that this was inaccurate: In the very first footnote Ash rubbishes the need to...
In a recent issue of the magazine of the Anglo-Boer War Study Group of Australia, Kopje, we were treated to a reminder by Professor Fransjohan Pretorius of what, since the 1940s or so, has become the standard way of looking at the Boer War...
One of the more bizarre claims I have heard made to try and ridicule the British army of the Second Boer War was that, so utterly outdated was it, that the men were issued boots with no specific left or right ‘cut’. I was gleefully informed by...
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