 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
with more British disasters than victories at first, although the Boers were heavily outnumbered.
The Boers' maximum strength was 75,000 men, mainly drawn from a white population of
300,000. Great Britian had a population of 30 million, superior resources, and eventually had as
many as 250,000 men in arms. Nonetheless, their losses were greater: 5,774 killed and over
22,800 wounded -against about 12,000 wounded Boers and 4,000 killed. Disease was a great
destroyer of men on both sides, more so than bullets, bayonets or bombs. But useful lessons
were learned during the war about the fatal heroics of cavalry charges, and of thick, colourful
uniforms. Camouflage, trench warfare, commando units and smokeless gunpowder made their
debut - as well as concentration camps, in which the British 'concentrated' and detained Boer
families and their dependents, and wherein over 25,000 died, mainly of disease.
Banjo Paterson was a spectator of the war, reporting back to the Sydney Morning Herald on
what he, as a journalist, saw. Another Australian versifier there was Lt Harry 'Breaker1 Morant:
an Englishman who had emigrated to Queensland, he was court-marshalled for shooting Boer
prisoners and, with another officer, was executed in February 1902 by a firing squad.
Somehow Dick Honeycombe ended up in Natal, where Winston Churchill, while a war
correspondent, had been captured when the Boers attacked an armoured train. Imprisoned in
Pretoria, Churchill later escaped, hiding on a goods train. Natal witnessed several bloody battles
and the four-month siege of Ladysmith, which was relieved on 28 February by General Sir
Redvers Buller, whose bumbling, bullish tactics had already caused considerable losses among
175
his own troops, at Colenso and Spionkop. Buller was replaced as the British commander-in-
chief by Field-marshal Lord Roberts, who, accompanied by General Lord Kitchener as his
chief of staff, arrived in Cape Town in January 1900.
On 13 March Roberts led his army into the capital of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein.
Mafeking was relieved on 4 May, and Roberts entered Johannesburg at the end of that month
and Pretoria early in June.
Byron Farwell, in The Great Boer War, describes what happened there.
'As in Johannesburg, it was business as usual in spite of the war... One could sit down to dinner
at the "best table in town" for five shillings. Hot and dusty farmers could come to the baths in
Vermeulen Street and have a warm tub, a shower, or a swim... Still, the wide streets were
unpaved. In the centre of town was Church Square, dominated by the Raadzaal [Town Hall]
and the Dutch Reformed Church where Kruger had often preached. On Church Street, the
principal thoroughfare, was the modest house of President Kruger. It was here on 29 May that
Kruger had said good-bye to his dying wife, leaving her to the care of their daughter, who lived
next door, and to the British. Unlike the loyal inhabitants of Bioemfontein, the citizens of Pretoria
did not flee. Indeed, there now seemed no place for them to go. The wives of Botha, Lucas
Meyer, Jan Smuts, and other Boer leaders remained in the town. Among the first soldiers to
enter Pretoria were Winston Churchill and his cousin, the young Duke of Marlborough, who
early in the morning on 5 June raced ahead of the troops to free the imprisoned [British]
officers. Churchill and Marlborough were directed to a barbed wire enclosure on the edge of
town. The prisoners called it "the bird cage." Here more than 100 officers were housed in a long
shed with a corrugated zinc roof, the interior decorated with pictures cut from illustrated British
magazines of the Queen, Lord Roberts, and celebrated actresses... When Churchill and
Marlborough rounded a corner and saw the "bird cage," Churchill took off his hat and gave a
 |