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GUERRILLA WARFARE
SECOND BOER WAR

In October 1899 the independent Boer republics of the SECOND BOER W
Transvaal and the Orange Free State launched a preemptive
attack on British-ruled South Africa. The conflict later became
a guerrilla war, in which lightly armed, mounted Boer
commandos defied the military might of the British Empire. AR

The Boer forces were a citizen militia. unprepared. Able to move swiftly
Every adult male was issued with a across the veld and resupply with the
rifle by the central government and local Boer population, the mounted
was obliged to turn up for military commandos struck at will against
service when called upon, bringing railroad lines and telegraph wires,
his weapon, ammunition, and a horse. supply convoys, and isolated garrisons.
The basic military unit was known as Although hugely outnumbered by the
a “commando”—before the term took British troops, the commandos’ hit-
on its current meaning. The Boers’ and-run attacks denied Britain the
equipment was light but of high chance to bring its superior forces into
quality. They had the latest Mauser play. When Boer horsemen did enter
rifles and some state-of-the-art field into combat against British troops they
artillery from the Krupp and Creusot were usually the victors, exploiting
factories in Europe. British infantry their speed of maneuver and superior
were equipped with Lee-Metford and knowledge of the terrain.
Lee-Enfield rifles, and both sides made
use of the machine-gun. A SCORCHED EARTH POLICY
The advent of smokeless powder The British commander-in-chief, Lord
meant that rifles had become more Kitchener, responded with a ruthless
accurate with better range, an advance counterinsurgency campaign. He
which played to a Boer strength: they built a chain of fortified blockhouses
were excellent sharpshooters, skilled linked by barbed wire to protect the
in exploiting cover, especially now railroads, before fencing in whole areas
that positions were no longer given of the veld, which could then be swept
away by gun smoke. They were also to flush out the guerrillas. Large
experienced in surviving on the South numbers of mounted troops were
African veld. But the commandos had deployed in roaming columns to hunt
their weaknesses: officers were the commandos. Most controversially,
elected, which, though democratic, Boer farms, livestock, and crops were
did not encourage strict discipline. also destroyed to deny the guerrillas
Also most Boers were reluctant to sustenance, and Boer women and
fight far from their home areas, children were herded into British
which limited offensive operations. “concentration camps,” where
The Boer army had a series of initial thousands died of malnutrition and
successes, but then suffered repeated disease. Thus a pattern was established
defeats as the British counterattacked that was to recur through the 20th
in strength. In the summer of 1900 century—a major power drawn into
British troops occupied the Boer deploying large-scale forces against
republics and declared the war won, an elusive enemy, and in the process
but while some Boers accepted this politically discrediting its own cause.
outcome many did not. Battle- In the end the commandos were not
hardened Boer commanders such defeated, but their leaders recognized
as Louis Botha, Koos de la Rey, and that the damage suffered by their own
Christiaan de Wet decided to fight on. people was too great to be allowed to
They launched a coordinated campaign continue. The British were also eager
of guerrilla warfare that caught the to end the fighting and a compromise
British occupying forces utterly peace was agreed in May 1902.