Episode 96 - Blundering into a British blockhouse, the Dirty Dozen break up
The Anglo-Boer War21 Heinä 2019

Episode 96 - Blundering into a British blockhouse, the Dirty Dozen break up

It’s the third week of July 1901 and this winter has been cold even by the standards of South Africa’s high plains. As I’m writing this, snow has blanketed parts of the semi-desert known as the Karoo and it was no different then. And Deneys Reitz is close to this region. He had found a bolt hole near the Lesotho border where he’d been hiding out with a handful of fellow travellers and his German colleagues. They’d been able to bathe for the first time in months having found a copper cistern. Reitz recovered during his short stint of R&R and was itching to rejoin the war. By the end of June the small band led by Field Cornet Botha started back down the mountains heading towards the Orange River which is the border between the Free State and the Cape Colony. AS they descended they saw a rider approaching. It was a young man named Jacobus Bosman. He would have been shot as a traitor. But Mr Bosman said it was worth the risk, so Reitz and his German troop enlisted him. Unfortunately for Bosman, he should have listened to the advice for as we’ll see, his is not a happy ending. After three days of progress the Quixotic group, or the dirty dozen as Dutch historian Martin Bossenbroek calls them, are back on the flat open plains within sight of the Johannesburg-Bloemfontein railway line. By now Lord Kitchener’s blockhouse system is causing the Boer guerrilla army some problems because these are close together and crossing the railway line has become very difficult during the day.

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Episode 39 - General Buller defeats the Boers at Allemansnek and enters the Transvaal

Episode 39 - General Buller defeats the Boers at Allemansnek and enters the Transvaal

We’re up to episode 39, and we’re concentrating on the Natal front - or what was known as the Eastern Front. The Natal town of Ladysmith was relieved by General Sir Redvers Buller on 28 February 1900,...

17 Kesä 201826min

Episode 38 - Roberts marches into Pretoria but de Wet assaults Roodewal

Episode 38 - Roberts marches into Pretoria but de Wet assaults Roodewal

For those who’ve followed this story from our start in October you know that we’re tracking the weeks of the war itself, and it’s now the first week of June 1900. This moment is what Lord Roberts has...

10 Kesä 201820min

Episode 37 - Johannesburg falls to the British

Episode 37 - Johannesburg falls to the British

We are into week 37 of this series and Johannesburg lies before Lord Roberts’ army. But he’s using a Velvet Glove which in retrospect is one of the biggest bungles of his career. While he frets over t...

3 Kesä 201821min

Episode 36 - The Battle of Doornkop near Johannesburg & Churchill rides a bicycle

Episode 36 - The Battle of Doornkop near Johannesburg & Churchill rides a bicycle

This episode is going to concentrate on the minutiae of the British army surrounding the city of Gold, Johannesburg. Its the city that was the main cause of this war with its gold and uitlanders or im...

27 Touko 201824min

Episode 35 - Mafeking becomes a verb

Episode 35 - Mafeking becomes a verb

It’s been a brutal seven months but for the English, they are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Or so it appears, because as the joke goes, the light at the end of the tunnel could ...

20 Touko 201823min

Episode 34 - Crossing the Vaal and a Finishing Touch in Mafeking

Episode 34 - Crossing the Vaal and a Finishing Touch in Mafeking

The ongoing march north by Lord Robert’s army continues, and also swing around to Mafeking just before Plumer’s relieving force arrives because the Boers have a surprise in store for the towns’ comman...

13 Touko 201825min

Episode 33 - Lord Roberts takes Kroonstad & the Canadians march

Episode 33 - Lord Roberts takes Kroonstad & the Canadians march

Mafikeng is still besieged, but columns of British soldiers are advancing on the town from both the North and South. The Boers are falling back across both the Free State and Natal fronts. President S...

6 Touko 201820min

Episode 32 - The English swarm over South Africa

Episode 32 - The English swarm over South Africa

This is episode 32 - the English swarm over South Africa. I have borrowed the title from a Chapter in Christian De Wet’s book published in 1902 called "Three Years War" and this week we will prepare ...

29 Huhti 201824min

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