“Treves watched a fatigue party of grave-diggers, the symbols of death, march jauntily past the door of his tent. It struck him that this devil-may-care attitude was characteristic of the private soldiers’ attitude to death. They had learnt now to hide their feelings behind the screen of tobacco smoke and the gallows humour.” (Pakenham, 2004,… Read More
“The Boers ‘will not play the game fairly’, said one of the soldiers. Ralph drew a different lesson. Those gleaming insignia, the stars and buttons and buckles of the professional soldier, were all very well in the drawing-room. In the sunshine of the veld they blazed like a heliograph. Against an invisible enemy, the British… Read More
“Still, war is, in the last resort, a contest of blunders…“ (Pakenham, 2004, p.169). Reference Pakenham, T. (2004) The Boer War. London: Abacus.
“True, Kruger’s plan was daring. He and Steyn had chosen attack as the best form of defence. But none of their pre-emptive blows was planned, as real offensive strategy demanded, to fall where the enemy was weakest. On the contrary, the aim was to find the strongest points in the enemy’s attacking force and then… Read More
“In this commando system , it was no one’s job to to train the burghers. Apart from the annual wappenschauw (or shooting practice), the men were left to fight as they had always fought – with the tactics of the mounted frontiersmen. If the enemy were superior in numbers, they would provoke the enemy’s attack,… Read More
Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute 