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

Episoder(143)

Episode 103 - A porcupine causes a stampede & General Smuts makes a big mistake at Murderer's Way

Episode 103 - A porcupine causes a stampede & General Smuts makes a big mistake at Murderer's Way

We continue to rid4 with General Jan Smuts and he has just entered the Cape Colony, an invasion that has been planned to coincide with Spring in early September 1901. The master guerrilla fighter and ...

8 Sep 201919min

Episode 102 - General Smuts enters the Cape and rides straight into a Basutho ambush

Episode 102 - General Smuts enters the Cape and rides straight into a Basutho ambush

Spring is upon is in this podcast - so too the long-awaited invasion of the Cape Colony by General Jan Smuts and his commando. It has taken him almost a month of zig-zagging across the Free State from...

1 Sep 201919min

Episode 101 - De Wet’s son shot by English special forces & Jan Smuts rides into view

Episode 101 - De Wet’s son shot by English special forces & Jan Smuts rides into view

This week we hear about the Dandy Fifth and Deneys Reitz. It’s also time to ride with General Christiaan de Wet as he sums up the Blockhouses. Reitz has fallen in with “this little band” as he calls t...

25 Aug 201918min

Episode 100 - “Send the Boers to Mexico” & Scheepers rides from Desolation Valley

Episode 100 - “Send the Boers to Mexico” & Scheepers rides from Desolation Valley

It’s an amazing to think that back in 2017 I was thinking about this podcast and whether I should go ahead and cover a topic that was missing on both iTunes and general podcasting. Jumping in and star...

18 Aug 201916min

Episode 99 - A Devil's Gorge, an executed priest, and the madness of Breaker Morant

Episode 99 - A Devil's Gorge, an executed priest, and the madness of Breaker Morant

It’s early August 1901 and a series of events in a far off corner of the war would end up resonating internationally for the next one hundred and 18 years. These involved the Bushveld Carbineers, th...

11 Aug 201924min

Episode 98 - Lord Kitchener issues an exile proclamation and de Wet lays an IED

Episode 98 - Lord Kitchener issues an exile proclamation and de Wet lays an IED

It’s time for an exchange of letters and a proclamation or two. General Jan Smuts and his commando have broken into smaller units and are traveling from the Transvaal to the Free State / Cape border. ...

4 Aug 201918min

Episode 97 - Bandits at the Southern border

Episode 97 - Bandits at the Southern border

This week we will hear about bandits at the Southern Border who are making the most of the guerrilla war raging around the Transvaal, parts of the Cape and the Free State. These motley laggards lurke...

28 Jul 201917min

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