Episode 78 - American blockhouses from Cuba and the enigma that was the pro-Boer John Tengo Jabavu
The Anglo-Boer War17 Mars 2019

Episode 78 - American blockhouses from Cuba and the enigma that was the pro-Boer John Tengo Jabavu

The ides of March were upon the British in South Africa as they continued chasing the ghost generals, Smuts, de la Rey, Beyers, de Wet across a cooling landscape that had begun its Southern Hemisphere Autumn in 1901. This week we’ll probe an American invention in Cuba called the Blockhouse chain as well as details of how journalist John Tengo Jabavu was publishing pro-Boer commentary against the wishes of both the British and most black intellectuals. We’ll return to his experiences later. The tactic of building a chain of forts is ancient, but the most recent examples before the Boer War came from the American War in Cuba. But this campaign had demonstrated that forts by themselves could not prevent guerrilla action and Lord Kitchener who was beginning to build them in South Africa knew that full well. Kitchener’s strategy therefore was to integrate the function of the fixed defensive units in fortified blockhouses with mobile attacking units on the drives. These began in January 1901, I’ve spoken about them in previous podcasts as the British tried herding or hustling the Boers into smaller areas of veld so that they could be overcome. Kitchener believed if the country could be divided into small areas by fortified lines, the Boers in each might be prevented from crossing to the next. His chessboard of maps across his HQ walls featured these regions with the addition of mobile columns that would be moved quickly by train from chess block to chess block while the blockhouses and barbed wire began to string out across the wide-open plains.

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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 Juli 201917min

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

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 ...

21 Juli 201919min

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