Download or read book The Battle of Magersfontein written by Garth Benneyworth and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2023-06-30 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magersfontein is an iconic battle, fought during the South African War of 1899–1902, also known as the Second Anglo-Boer War. Over 30 years of research informs this book, the first source referenced history about Magersfontein and the other actions, fought in the lead up to this monumental clash. It details the Kimberly Siege and the intensity of combat fought at Belmont, Graspan, and, in particular Modder River, a key battle during the opening months of the war. No shortage of publications exists on the South African War and Magersfontein. Yet myths perpetuate, legends, ideologies, hand down errors, fabrications, and sloppy research by self-appointed experts. Many contemporary sources regurgitate without analysis, and many recent publications offer no references to sources. None consult the rich and extensive archives in the Kimberley and Bloemfontein museums, instead using stock standard sources, while ignoring Dutch and Afrikaans language accounts, resulting in lopsided narratives. To address this, the author has used primary sources, never before published diaries, letters, photographs, maps, battle orders, official histories and reports, personal reflections, regimental histories of the war, and survivor interviews, collected over 30 years. The originals being lodged in archives, libraries, museums and private collections in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia. Having walked the killing grounds for over three decades, the author offers insights into the archaeology and topography of the site, also detailing forgotten burial sites of human casualties, from all sides. Consequently, original findings emerge, with regards to Boer positioning and tactics, a British outflanking manoeuvre at Magersfontein Hill that almost worked, and Boer counter attacks, and the use of mobility, rather than the previously expounded notion that they sat passively parked in trenches, as most narratives present. Insights into military commanders emerge, never before published. Importantly, the war between the Generals, which this work uncovers, relying on unpublished recollections of conversations between senior officers from both sides. The loathing between two prominent Boer generals, as too the incompetence of the leading British General, glossed over for 122 years. Captured in this infighting, were loyal, efficient, and brave British and Boer commanders and ordinary soldiers from both sides. Many of whose voices speak through this narrative for the first time, doing justice and testimony to their unique, yet terrifying experiences and observations of warfare, in Victory and Defeat on the South African Veld.

Download or read book The Siege of Kimberley written by T. Phelan and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Great Boer War written by Byron Farwell and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2009-09-19 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the battle for independence from the British Empire in South Africa by “a vivid chronicler of military forces, generals, and wars” (Kirkus Reviews). The Great Boer War (1899-1902), more properly known as the Great Anglo-Boer War, was one of the last romantic wars, pitting a sturdy, stubborn pioneer people fighting to establish the independence of their tiny nation against the British Empire at its peak of power and self-confidence. It was fought in the barren vastness of the South African veldt, and it produced in almost equal measure extraordinary feats of personal heroism, unbelievable examples of folly and stupidity, and many incidents of humor and tragedy. Byron Farwell traces the war’s origins; the slow mounting of the British efforts to overthrow the Afrikaners; the bungling and bickering of the British command; the remarkable series of bloody battles that almost consistently ended in victory for the Boers over the much more numerous British forces; political developments in London and Pretoria; the sieges of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley; the concentration camps into which Boer families were herded; and the exhausting guerrilla warfare of the last few years when the Boer armies were finally driven from the field. The Great Boer War is a definitive history of a dramatic conflict by the author of Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, “a leading popular military historian” (Publishers Weekly).

Download or read book South Africa and the Transvaal War written by Louis Creswicke and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Diary of an African Journey written by H. Rider Haggard and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2001-08 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1914, Haggard, the author of colonialist novels King Solomon's Mines and She returned to a South Africa which had greatly changed since the first visits of his youth. This account of his journey as a member of the British Empire's Dominions Royal Commission offers observations on the changed nature of the country after the Anglo-Boer wars and details a number of aspects of the political landscape, including a description of his interview with the founder of the African National Congress, John Dube. c. Book News Inc.

Download or read book Tracing Your Boer War Ancestors written by Jane Marchese Robinson and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Boer War took place between 1899 and 1902, just 15 years before the start of the First World War. Some 180,00 Britons , mainly volunteers , traveled 6,000 miles to fight and die in boiling conditions on the veld and atop ‘kopjes’. Of the over 20,000 who died more than half suffered enteric, an illness consequent on insanitary water. This book will act as an informative research guide for those seeking to discover and uncover the stories of the men who fought and the families they left behind. It will look in particular at the kind of support the men received if they were war injured and that offered to the families of the bereaved. Some pensions were available to regular soldiers and the Patriotic Fund, a charitable organization , had been resurrected at the beginning of the conflict. However for those who did not fit these categories the Poor Law was the only support available at the time. The book will explore a variety of research materials such as: contemporary national and local newspapers; military records via websites and directly through regimental archives; census, electoral, marriage and death records; records at the National Archives including the Book of Wounds from the Boer War, the Transvaal Widows’ Fund and others.

Download or read book Letters from Kimberly written by Edward Spiers and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2013-12-02 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full of new material, fresh insights and perceptive analysis.' Ian Knight??The defence of Kimberley – and the mission to relieve it – was one of the great dramatic sagas of the South African War. The actual relief, following a spectacular cavalry charge, represented the first decisive upturn in the fortunes of the British war effort, soon followed by a crushing defeat of the Boers at the battle of Paardeberg. Within Kimberley citizens suffered from dwindling food stocks and enemy shelling, but even more controversial were the tensions that erupted between the siege commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Kekewich, and Kimberley's leading citizen, Cecil Rhodes. ??In this illuminating new history, Edward Spiers, presents a selection of first-hand accounts of this epic siege. The 260 letters were published originally in British metropolitan and provincial newspapers and they provide crucial insights into the perceptions of civilians caught up in the siege; the desperate and bloody attempts to relieve the town; and the experiences of junior officers and other ranks as they struggled to cope with the demands of modern warfare. Full of human incident, drama and pathos, these fascinating eyewitness testimonies make for compelling reading and add richly to our understanding of the events in Cape Colony.

Download or read book Boer War Illustrated written by Thomas Pakenham and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A History of South African Literature written by Christopher Heywood and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a critical study of South African literature, from colonial and pre-colonial times onwards. Christopher Heywood discusses selected poems, plays and prose works in five literary traditions: Khoisan, Nguni-Sotho, Afrikaans, English, and Indian. The discussion includes over 100 authors and selected works, including poets from Mqhayi, Marais and Campbell to Butler, Serote and Krog, theatre writers from Boniface and Black to Fugard and Mda, and fiction writers from Schreiner and Plaatje to Bessie Head and the Nobel prizewinners Gordimer and Coetzee. The literature is explored in the setting of crises leading to the formation of modern South Africa, notably the rise and fall of the Emperor Shaka's Zulu kingdom, the Colenso crisis, industrialisation, the colonial and post-colonial wars of 1899, 1914, and 1939, and the dissolution of apartheid society. In Heywood's study, South African literature emerges as among the great literatures of the modern world.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of African Colonial Conflicts 2 volumes written by Timothy J. Stapleton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-11-07 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two volumes introduce the history of colonial wars in Africa and illustrate why African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan continue to experience ethnic, political, and religious violence in the early 21st century. This sweeping study examines the wars of colonial conquest fought in Africa during the 19th and early 20th centuries. From Britain's efforts to wrest control of the Sudan from military leader Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi, to Italy's decisive defeat at the Battle of Adowa in Ethiopia, to Leopold II's brutal reign over the Belgian Congo, the work surveys the devastation reaped upon the continent by colonization and illustrates how its combative influence continues to resonate in Africa today. Written by scholars in the fields of history and politics, this complete reference includes entries on wars, campaigns, rebellions, battles, leaders, and organizations. The work delves into key historical periods including the "Scramble for Africa" (ca.1880 to 1910); early European colonial wars in Africa, such as the Dutch in the Cape and the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique; and African rebellions against the early colonial state in the 1890s and early 1900s. Entries feature prominent events and personalities as well as lesser-known occurrences and players.

Download or read book Beat the Drum Slowly written by Robert Firth and published by eBookIt.com. This book was released on 2013-02 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BEAT THE DRUM SLOWLY is the story of war, parenthetically and unfortunately, it is also unavoidably, the story of man's history. From our earliest days, conflict has been the single most common characteristic of humanity. Man has fought man and men have fought men on every continent, every ocean and every island from the moment one set eyes on the other. Be this xenophobia or be this a form of insanity is difficult to tell. In any case, the difference is lost amid the bombastic sounds of war. The weapons themselves are of little consequence, be they bare hands, clubs, knives, swords, spears, arrows, muskets, machine guns or atomic bombs. The end remains the same- lives are lost....like a sputtering candle, guttering in the wind, with darkness having the final word. We can easily enough research each of the thousands of battles between one group on this sad earth and another. Countries have fought countries and people, people, since before we began keeping count. We don't need this book, or any like it, to recount the history of these terrible conflicts. Beat The Drum Slowly instead delves into the underlying nature and motivations driving human-kind toward war and murder. We look beneath the facile explanations and histories offered by conquerors. (the losers seldom get a say) and attempt to peal away the layers of rationalization, lies and hypocrisy. The question is- what is it in humanity compelling us to engage in wholesale murder of our fellow man? Of course, it does superficially seem to be a "blood sport" engaged in mostly by men. Perhaps the culprit is testosterone? Women don't seem to be driven to dress up in silly uniforms, parade around to martial music and then run out screaming for blood... do they? From what we have observed, this seems a valid point. Those women who do go in for this kind of thing often have as much hair on their chins as the men they emulate... Of course, unless every country in the world placed women into every possible governmental position giving the female of the species complete and total power over everything, we will never know. Such is about as unlikely to happen as a vegan 'snarfing' up a bloody steak, the world will have to wait until some time in the future to see how that would work out. In the real world, men are stronger than women and men are highly competitive and combative. Men fight for power and never willingly give it up. Seeing things in this light, it is completely understandable as to why the world is governed by men. Men fight for survival, dominance, money, religion, race, patriotism, real estate and revenge. This book examines each of these motivating factors with the purpose being to explain to ourselves and our readers exactly what in holy hell is wrong with us. If the best way we have devised over thousands of years to settle differences is warfare then it does seem that mankind is doomed. Sooner or later, one side or another will design and field the ultimate weapon and, with our historical inability to foresee the future consequences of our actions, it is entirely likely that we will have finally managed to destroy all human life. Probably, the animals and other creatures of the earth will be rejoice over this. Is it at all possible that we can learn to settle our differences using our intellect and common sense or are we a doomed species? This is the question we examine and try to answer in this book. Regardless of the means one uses to bring death, war is by man's hand, whether driven by, religion, murder, etc. To study the countless wars throughout history trying to ascertain a cumulative total of deaths caused by war would take days, weeks or even months. Outside of war, murder and other direct causes of death, we are our own worst enemy. With the ability to annihilate the earth with "the press of a button," man's potential to end the lives o

Download or read book The Anglo Boer War 1899 1902 White man s war black man s war traumatic war written by André Wessels and published by UJ Press. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on many years of research with regard to the Anglo-Boer War, this book is essential reading for anyone who would like to know more about the most devastating conflict that has thus far been waged between white people in Southern Africa. However, with due course, this war also involved more and more black, brown and, to some extent, Asian people.

Download or read book Weekends with Legends written by Bridget Hilton-Barber and published by New Africa Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guidebook details short trips out of Gauteng, including discovering the ruins of ancient African kingdoms or staying in historic homes. For each attraction there are details of costs, address, phone, directions on how to get there and facilities.

Download or read book Northern Cape written by Mike Cadman and published by Jacana Media. This book was released on 2007 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Heroes of the Boer War written by Frederik Rompel and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lord Methuen and the British Army written by Stephen M. Miller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study analyzes the readiness of the British military establishment for war in 1899 and its performance in the South African War (1899-1902). It focuses on the career of Field Marshal Paul Sanford, 3rd Baron Methuen, whose traditional military training, used so effectively in Queen Victoria's small wars, was put to the test by the modern challenges of the South African War. A subsidiary aim of this work is to correct and refine the historical consensus that Methuen's campaing in the South African War was plagued by practical errors and poor judgement. The South African War was a crucial transitional episode in the history of the British army. Unlike Great Britain's other expeditions, it required the concentrated resources of the entire empire. It was a modern war in the sense that it employed the technology, the weaponry, the communications, and the transportation of the second industrial revolution.

Download or read book Communicating the North written by Dr Jonas Harvard and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-12-28 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What makes a magazine in South Africa promote Scandinavian unity among its immigrant readers and why does a Swedish king endorse attempts to influence pan-Scandinavian opinion through a transnational media event in Sweden, Norway and Denmark? Can portraits of exotic Lapplanders in the British press, enthusiastic accounts of the welfare state in post-war travel literature and descriptions of the liberal Nordic woman as a metaphor for a freer society in Franco Spain really be bundled together under a joint label of 'Nordicness'? How is it that despite the variety of images of the Nordic region that are circulating, we still find this recurring idea of a shared Nordic identity? These are some of the questions the current volume seeks to answer. Covering the time period from the early nineteenth century up until the present and encompassing case studies from Britain, Spain, Poland, and South Africa, as well as from the Nordic countries, contributors to the volume investigate the images that have been presented of the Nordic region in the media in and outside of the Nordic countries, how such images have been shaped by mechanisms of mediation, and the channels through which they have been distributed. The chapters address both specific cases such as media events and individual publications, as well as the structural and institutional settings for mediating the Nordic region.