Episode 53 - An IED on a Transvaal railway line & London Times Shipping Records.

We are up to episode 53 and this week we’ll take a closer look at the use of Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs in the war. While not a new invention, a Scotsman fighting for the Boers used a new remote triggering mechanism which is illuminating. Nothing brings out innovation in humans more than creative techniques to kill and maim each other. The war at this point in the third week of September 1900 appeared to be in one of those natural lulls, where small skirmishes were reported, and a bridge or two was blown up. But the Boers were planning a long term strategy which the British were only now beginning to fully understand. And the IED was symptomatic of the new guerrilla war. We know that the British in South Africa were totally reliant on the railway lines that had been built through the 19th century. The British army needed these to transport men and material to the two main battle fronts in the Free State and Transvaal - and also to transport the injured back to the various ports in order to be shipped back to their home countries. That’s because the alternative to these railway lines, the paths, dirt roads and tracks, were unpredictable and susceptible to the seasonal conditions. Also, mechanised equipment was in its infancy - there were steam driven vehicles which the British used for example, but these were few and far between. Oxen and horses were expensive to ship and these supplies were not always easy to come by - we’ve heard for example how Argentina, Canada, the USA, Arabia, India and other parts of Africa had been tapped for supplies of mules, horses and oxen. More about this when we hear about the shipping lists in a while. It took months to source these animals, then load them aboard ships which would sail or steam to Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and even Beira in Portuguese East Africa.