Episode 22 - The relief of Kimberley

We’re going to ride with the French Colonel or "Die Franse Kolonel", Georges Villebois-Mareuil as he heads into the Free State with the International Legion. This episode is slightly longer than usual because the details of this Frenchman are so intriguing. We will also be introduced to some of the International soldiers who fought for the Boers, including artist Vincent Van Gogh’s brother, Cor. He’s already been living in the Transvaal building locomotives for the President Paul Kruger’s government, and when war breaks out, naturally he signed up to fight for the Boers. The French Colonel Villebois-Mareuil, a man steeped in family military tradition, had arrived in South Africa soon after the war began in October 1899 and had travelled to Ladysmith in November. He was present at the battle of Colenso, and by January 1900 was well known to the Boer soldiers as he began to advise General Piet Joubert. This was a sensitive matter as Joubert brooked no interference, but at one point the Frenchman had suggested an attack on two British outposts that were critical for the defence of the besieged town. These were observation points known as Caesars Camp and Waggon Hill and they required attacking at night. On 2nd January General Joubert held a war council at his hooflaer or HQ above Ladysmith and it was finally decided to launch an attack on the town, preceded by the taking of Caesars Camp and Waggon Hill. On 5th January the Boers began to move - little knowing that fate was against them. One of the better organised British commanders, Colonel Hamilton, was in command at Caesars Camp and Waggon hill. Also, Sir George White, the Ladysmith commander, had issued orders for the various guns there to be moved out on to the plateau - dealing the Boers a blow before the battle started because the hustle and bustle of artillery moving around meant the British were very wide awake.

2 Dec 201826min

This week its Frenchman Georges Villebois-Mareuil whose military exploits echoed the wars of the 19th Century, particularly the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. Villebois-Mareuil even spent time in what became known as Vietnam, fighting in French-Indo-China, and in Europe in the mid-to-late 1800s. But it was in Africa where he really excelled including fighting as a commander in the French Foreign Legion in Algeria. He was admired by the Boers and became known as “Die Franse Kolonel” - The French Colonel. We’ve already heard about the Irish, the Americans, Canadians, Scots, Australians, New Zealanders, Germans, Scandinavians of all types, Dutch, and Portuguese soldiers who were active in the anglo-Boer war. There were Mexicans too, and Spaniards. This was a precursor to the terrible World Wars which shattered the 20th Century - and in many ways - those fighting were practicing for what seemed to be an inevitable cataclysm only fourteen years later. World War One was an inexorable calamity, and the Anglo-Boer war one of the early military steps taken by these nations. There were other international brigades in South Africa similar for example to those who fought on both sides in the Spanish Civil War. Some of the international cadres involved in the Boer war were mercenaries, some were romantics who believed in causes, others were adventurers. Perhaps one of the more complex was French Colonel, Georges Villebois-Mureuil - a swashbuckling veteran soldier of the Prussian wars who ended up dying in a battle during the Anglo-Boer war.

25 Nov 201820min

In episode 61 we traverse the width of South Africa to head back to the Free State after following the Canadians through the Eastern Transvaal last week. It’s in the Free State where General Christiaan de Wet remains at large. His plan is to head south through the Free State and into the Cape - although he did consider Natal as an option as well. The Boers wanted to incite the Cape Afrikaners to rise up against the British by an insurgency they believed had a good chance of success. It was an idea General Jan Smuts had put to the gathered Boer leaders at a meeting in October 1900 at Cypherfontein farm west of Johannesburg. But we also know that de Wet distrusted many of his fellow commanders, and would not support the first part of Smuts’ plan which was an audacious plot to send a combined commando unit to blow up Johannesburg gold Mines, before dispersing to launch invasions of both the Natal and Cape Colonies. Also this week, we hear how Transvaal President Paul Kruger arrives in Marseilles, France, to a rapturous welcome by 60 000 people. But the ageing Boer leader is doomed never to return to Africa again.

18 Nov 201820min

We’re still riding with the Canadians in the area around Belfast in the Eastern Transvaal, which is a short distance away from South Africa’s all important coal mines. Last week we heard how the icy rain had lashed Smith-Dorrien’s 1200 strong column as it tried to rid the region of a large Boer commando based at the nearby town of Carolina. That was a column of various English, Scots and Canadian units. He’d been forced to retreat after the effects of weather and Boer firepower at Witkloof and buried one of his top officers called Chalmers, but that didn’t deter Smith-Dorrien. A few days after his men arrived back in Belfast, bedraggled and ragged, he was planning a new offensive against the Boers. The first tragic expedition was merely a dress rehearsal for the battle of Liliefontein. The purpose of the second expedition was identical to the first. To destroy all the farms suspected of harbouring the Boer commandos who had been blowing up railway lines and committing other acts of sabotage. The British also wanted to lure the large Boer Carolina commando out of their lair along the Komati River and into battle. On the 6th November Smith-Dorrien once again set out under cover of darkness as he did last week but unlike the first expedition, there was no icy rain, no fog, no mist. It was in perfect weather that his column set off with temperatures even in the early evening in the mid-20s centigrade. There was one important difference this week. Smith-Dorrien had learned his lesson when it came to splitting up his force and the 1200 men moved as one unit.

11 Nov 201823min

Mercurial Boer commander Christiaan de Wet has just avoided being captured along with Free State President Andries Steyn at the brutal "small" battle at Bothaville. The Boers lost 25 killed and 130 captured. Another 30 were wounded. De Wet also was forced to abandon four Krupps field guns, a pom pom, and two artillery pieces captured from the British at the battles of Colenso and Sannah's Post. British losses were also serious: 38 men either wounded or killed in action. But now it’s time to direct our gaze back to the east of Pretoria, where the 14 year-old school girl Freda Schlosberg’s family had suffered the effects of the climate in the lowlands near Rhenosterkop. Her story was being repeated over and over as the civilians caught in this war tried to rebuild their lives once the conventional war ended and the insurgency began. She and her mother, father and a brother had been prevented by the Boers from leaving Rhenosterkop for their small holding near Pretoria at a town called Bronkhorstspruit. They had applied for a permit to move from the Boer General Erasmus in early October and it was now a month later and they were still refused permission to travel home. But there was to be good news for the family. In the North Eastern Transvaal, the Canadians and Australians in particular had been busy since mid October. To these men it seemed as though the solemn annexation ceremonies in Pretoria and the departure of some of their colleagues only seemed to encourage the Boer commandos to renew their offensive. Lord Roberts and Kitchener or Bobs and K as they were known, had ordered the scorched earth policy to begin in earnest. And the man charged with scorching the Eastern Transvaal area of Belfast and driving Boer women and children from their homes was the much admired General Smith-Dorrien. He was highly regarded by the Royal Canadians because of his active service throughout the war. An icy rain was to dent his image somewhat as we find out in this podcast.

4 Nov 201817min

This is episode 58 and there’s much excitement, General Knox catches up with de Wet for a second time and all hell breaks loose. Nothing damages you more in war than a lack of proper intelligence gathering. With information that is accurate and dispassionate, you can improve morale, skirmish successfully, offset equipment shortfalls, plan forward, restrict enemy incursions and avoid pitfalls. Victory is possible. Without proper scouts, victory is uncertain. So its the last week of October 1900 and General Christiaan de Wet has begun to really miss the scouts under command of Danie Theron. He’d been blown up in a British attack back in September. As I’ve prepared this series, there have been many characters that have come and gone, some survived this terrible war, others avoided capture, some succeeded, many died. But none, dear listener, has been as effective as part of de Wet’s commando as this one person. Danie Theron had a relatively small force under his command, between 60 and 80 men. But this organisation as its known in military terms, was imbued with a remarkable ability. The company could read the landscape and the enemy. And they did it surrupticiously. They could survive for months on end with one meal every three days, and water intermittantly. They understood the enemy more profoundly than themselves and were able to report unemotionally and with certainty at any time day or night. It was these men that Christiaan de Wet missed and in the space of a fortnight, almost cost him his life and freedom.

28 Okt 201814min

The guerilla campaign is now under way in late October 1900 and the leaders of the Boer commandos and their remaining political icon, Andries Styen the president of the Free State, are due to meet one hundred kilometres west of Johannesburg in the last week of the month. The gathering was scheduled to take place on the farm Cyferfontein where Louis Botha, Koos de La Rey and other commanders were heading determined to finalise the new strategy for the coming insurgency. Absent was General Christiaan de Wet, who’d almost been captured by General Knox at Schoemansdrift and the Boer General was now lying low in the Free State. Unfortunately for de Wet, General Knox and his men were going to attack de Wet once more, and this time, the November engagement would deal de Wet one of his worst defeats of the war. Meanwhile, in the northern Transvaal town of Pietersberg, Boers had begun to congregate determined to continue the war. Young leaders like Beyers and Kemp arrived in the town, while Koos de La Rey was active to the west, as he prepared for the late October pow pow. It was here that Louis Botha met with the new youthful and passionate leaders, and laid out his initial plan. Botha would maintain command of South East Transvaal, Ben Viljoen the north east, and the West would remain Koos de la Reys hunting ground. They all continued to make strenuous efforts to keep their men in the field, but it was difficult. And if you think it was just the British burning farms in order to send a message, you’re wrong. Louis Botha had also been indulging in a little arson to make a political point. “I will be compelled…” Botha wrote to one of his commanders later, “If they do not listen to this, to confiscate everything moveable or immovable and also to burn their houses…” Botha also revealed another plan he’d long been working on. To attack the Cape. This seemed impossible, rather like Stalin ordering an attack on Germany while fighting his defensive campaign in 1941 and 1942. But Botha was aware of the strength in mobility, and also that the Cape Afrikaners may decide to turn out and fight against the British if their brethren achieved successes in the Colony.

21 Okt 201818min

This is episode 56 and there are movements afoot. For instance, Transvaal President Paul Kruger is on his way to Europe on a diplomatic mission, Free State President Styen is moving through the Northern Transvaal, and General Louis Botha is harassing Canadian, Australian, and English troops stationed along the all important railway line between Pretoria and Delagoa Bay. Also moving through the veld are Generals Christiaan de Wet and Koos de La Rey. The former has made his way back into his beloved Free State, while the latter is making life difficult for the English across a broad swathe of the Transvaal. Steyn and the rest of the Free State government were returning to battle in the Free State after the all important meeting with Kruger in Nelspruit where it was decided to go ahead with the guerrilla campaign. The British, meanwhile, are considering winding down their forces in South Africa, with their commander in chief Lord Roberts planning his trip back home. The Boers have arranged a second major meeting of generals and government officials at Cyferfontein, a farm around 100 kilometres west of the gold ming city of Johannesburg set for October 25th. Steyn was en route here on his circuitous ride home, so too de le Rey and de Wet, while Botha would also rendezvous with these erstwhile Boer commanders. More about that gathering in coming podcasts. Lord Roberts has setup his army across South Africa to act more like police than soldiers. He believed the bandits, as he called these small groups of roaming Boers, would eventually surrender as long as their logistics could be smashed. So apart from ordering the farms destroyed close to where railway lines or bridges were blown up, he divided the country into areas of command. Garrisons were created in various towns and villages. To put down the insurgency in the countryside, he setup various flying columns. These were supposed to be highly mobile cavalry and mounted infantry units which were tasked with tracking down and trapping the Boer bands. In reality they could not obtain enough horses in order to achieve their main aim. However, the small bands of Boers began to multiply, and yet these flying columns could not locate the ever increasing commandos.

14 Okt 201818min