Boer War - Guerrilla Phase Flashcards
Start of the guerrilla phase
-The 25,000 remaining commandos deployed as guerrilla, which is few but they were well mounted, knew the terrain better than the British, and could target the railways which the British forces relied on
-De Wet was elusive and managed to escape across the border from the OFS to the Transvaal despite being pursued by 50,000 British men
-De Wet invaded the Cape Colony in November 1900, forcing Roberts to divert troops from the Free State and Transvaal
Lord Roberts response to guerrilla forces
-Roberts believed that the fall of Bloemfontein and Pretoria had brought the war to an end, but it didn’t
-Roberts’ made an early effort to end the guerrilla movement by decreeing on the 16 June 1900 that if the Boer fighter struck railways, stations, or telegraph lines, then the British would torch the homes and farms in that area
-Roberts left for Britain in December 1900 to take up his new post as Commander-in-Chief of the Army
Lord Kitchener replaces Lord Roberts
-Roberts left for Britain in December 1900 to take up his new post as Commander-in-Chief of the Army
-Kitchener was initially Roberts’ chief of staff, succeeded him as C-in-C from December 1900, taking charge of the final phase of the war
Lord Kitchener’s position at the start of the guerrilla phase
-The Boer guerrillas forced the British into a ‘war of attrition’
-Lord Kitchener had 210,000 British and Empire troops available
Lord Kitchener - Scorched Earth Policy
The policy begun under Roberts and was meant to deny food and shelter to the guerrillas
-The British forces swept through the Boer areas and systematically removed or destroyed any food, livestock, ammunition, or anything else useful to the guerrillas
-The policy created thousands of homeless civilians who were escorted by British soldiers to concentration camps
-During the war, farms were destroyed, fields salted and wells poisoned to keep the Boers from feeding their fighting men. The families that lived inside would then be dragged off to a concentration camp, where many would die
Lord Kitchener - Concentration Camps - British intentions
-Army commanders felt it their duty to round up the Boers to save them from starvation, but also to stop them from giving aid to the Boer guerrillas
-Some hoped it would persuade Boer men to stop fighting, others foresaw that it would only stiffen the resistance
Lord Kitchener - Concentration Camps - Conditions
-Overcrowding in the camps made conditions terrible, food supplies were erratic, and medical care almost non-existent
-Running the camps was a low priority for an army still at war and the administration was very poor
-Water-borne diseases played a large role due to the lack of proper sanitation as more and more Boers were brought in
Lord Kitchener - Concentration Camps - Death rates
-The high death rate in the camps angered the Boers, caused criticism abroad, and national outcry in Britain
-By the end of the war, 25% of camp internees had died of disease
Lord Kitchener - Concentration Camps - Total Population
-In March 1901, there were 27 camps holding 35,000 people; by September 1901, there were 35 camps with 110,000 people
Lord Kitchener - Concentration Camps - Deaths were merely a blunder
-Perhaps the Camps were not intended to terrorise the Boers but inadequate admin produced a humanitarian disaster
-Kitchener argued that the camps were humanitarian as the alternative was leaving civilians without food and shelter meaning almost certain death
Lord Kitchener - Concentration Camps - Deaths were intentional policy
-Critics suggested that the camp policy was deliberate neglect
-Thinking that news of the high death toll in camps would demoralise Boer fighters, the British Army continued to force more Boers into the overcrowded camps
Lord Kitchener - Concentration Camps - The alternative policy
-Towards the end of the war, the British left Boer families on farms, as this might encourage the guerrillas to surrender
-The army had realised that the camps had become a propaganda gift to critics abroad and anti-war campaigners at home
Lord Kitchener - How the British won the War - Conventional defeat of the Boers
=By September 1900, many Boer commanders had surrendered and were POWs – President Martinus Steyn of the OFS and President Paul Kruger of the Transvaal had both fled South Africa
-Towns and supplies stockpiled by the Boer governments were under British control
Lord Kitchener - How the British won the War - Blockhouses
-Kitchener ordered the countryside to be segmented by barbed wire and blockhouses (small overlapping forts of up to 8 men) in order to isolate Boer resistance
-Then cavalry and mounted infantry would be used to clear out any Boer guerrillas section by section
-8,000 blockhouses and 4,000 miles of barbed wire built from late 1900 to early 1901 to establish British control
-This protected the railways and isolated guerrilla pockets but meant few troops were left for offensive operations
Lord Kitchener - How the British won the War - Failed invasion of Cape Colony
-Boer fighters led by de Wet and Jan Smuts invaded Cape Colony in September 1901 in the hopes that local Boers would join them
-An uprising did not take place (in fact many Afrikaners in the Cape were helping the British) and the Boers were chased back to the Orange Free State
-Boer guerrilla groups in the Transvaal continued to harass the British until the last skirmish of the war at the Battle of Rooiwal in April 1902
