Beste The Anglo Boer War Podcasts (2024)

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Episode 143 - Characters of the war an omnibus final edition with a great deal of Smuts 23:42

4+ y ago23:42

23:42

Thanks to those who’ve sent messages of support in the last few weeks – the level of interaction has been remarkable from all my listeners around the world. For some we started this journey together in September 2017 and here we are almost 36 months later and the Three Years War has ended.This podcast was always designed to track the war week by we…

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Episode 142 - The winners and the losers – counting the cost 22:36

4+ y ago22:36

22:36

This week we count the costs of the war and follow some of those involved as they begin the long process of recovery. First, the cost.There is still debate about some of the statistics as there always is after a war. However the general consensus is that more than 100,000 men, women and children died between 1899 and 1902. At first glance it appear…

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Episode 141 - Peace! 21:03

4+ y ago21:03

21:03

Episode 141 is where the British and the Boers finally sign a peace treaty, but there’s quite a bit to cover as we go about watching the days between 19th and 31st May 1902.Remember how the representatives from both sides, Botha, Smuts, Hertzog, De Wet, Burger and De la Rey for the Boers, Milner and Kitchener for the British, had decided to try and…

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Episode 140 - General Cronje demands a St Helena mounted guard & Peace Talks back on in Pretoria 23:25

4+ y ago23:25

23:25

The first large group of Boer prisoners were taken by the British at the battle of Elandslaagte on 21st October 1899. The army had failed to plan for prisoners because the idea was the Boers would be beaten in a few weeks so why spend money on POW camps? The first 188 Boers taken at Elandslaagte were temporarily housed with the naval guard in Simon…

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Episode 139 - Emotions run high in Vereeniging as the Boers discuss English Peace terms 23:21

4+ y ago23:21

23:21

Episode 139 is full of peace and a smattering of love as the Boers gather in Vereeniging to discuss the British terms of surrender.As you can well imagine, the moment is bitter sweet. Men who have not seen their children for years are reunited on May 15th, while further afield, in the prisoner-of-war camps, the news is greeted with both joy and sor…

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Episode 138 - The Zulu massacre Boers at Holkrantz on the eve of the Vereeniging Conference 21:10

4+ y ago21:10

21:10

We’re up to episode 138 and it’s a week to go before the all-important Boer Conference in Vereeniging starting May 15th 1902. Lord Kitchener has ordered his men in all intents and purposes to stop chasing the Boers, stop the burning of farms and to wait for the Boers conference.We have heard how Jan Smuts and Louis Botha met in the Eastern Transvaa…

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Episode 137 -Smuts meets a ragged Louis Botha and a Boer spy loses her mind momentarily 19:07

4+ y ago19:07

19:07

First we join General Jan Smuts who has been waiting in Cape Town for the British to lay on a a train to take him inland where he will join the Boer political and military leaders at Vereeniging for a conference starting on May 15th. They gathered in order to discuss the British terms of surrender. Smuts was mostly silent while he waited with his b…

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Episode 136 - Deneys Reitz receives a record promotion and General Smuts takes a cruise to Cape Town 18:07

4+ y ago18:07

18:07

We’re back in the Northern Cape with General Jan Smuts. He’s been waiting in vain for more than two weeks for the British to send a relief force after he laid siege to the well defended town of O’Kiep having already seized Springbok and Concordia. Meanwhile, the first round of peace talks have already ended in Pretoria with the Boers undertaking to…

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Episode 135 - General de la Rey’s Mom turns 84 & the commandos run out of pap and vleis 18:41

4+ y ago18:41

18:41

While the Boer political and military leadership were huddled around a table in Lord Kitchener’s office, far off in the Northern Cape General Smuts and his commando had defeated the British at three small towns through the months of March and April 1902. We’ve heard about the assaults on Springbok, Calvinia and O’Kiep. Smuts was waiting patiently f…

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Episode 134 - Commandant Potgieter’s charge at the last battle of the Boer War, as Peace Talks begin 19:54

4+ y ago19:54

19:54

This is episode 134 and its April 1902. The Boer military and political leadership has been permitted by the British to travel to Pretoria by train and will meet with Lord Kitchener to talk peace. All the fighting of the previous two years and 6 months have led both sides to this moment. And yet, there is one more major bloody battle left which is …

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Episode 133 - Cecil John Rhodes dies and the Boers agree to Peace Talks 19:56

4+ y ago19:56

19:56

As we heard last week, the Netherlands government had decided by January 1902 that the South Africa war was no longer viable for the Boers. Even the latest successes in March where General De la Rey and Jan Smuts had been victorious in battles in the western Transvaal and Northern Cape respectively had failed to really convince their closest ally i…

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Episode 132 -The Canadians last stand at Boschbult aka Harts River & the Hague suggests peace 18:07

4+ y ago18:07

18:07

There are a few more skirmishes and one more big battle after this period with its frustrations for the British and determination by the Boer die-hards or Bitter einders to continue their war against an empire at its zenith. We will hear about General Christiaan de Wet and Lord Kitchener who are closer physically than at virtually any other time in…

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Episode 131 -The Boers blow up a blockhouse & Lord Kitchener steams into Klerksdorp 19:19

5y ago19:19

19:19

General Jan Smuts and his commando have seized the small town of Springbok in the far northern Cape. As we heard last week, the town fell after a few hours of fighting and the surrender of the three forts that dominated its defences. After the town was taken, our narrator Deneys Reitz had fallen into a deep sleep have had no rest for three full day…

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Episode 130 - Sniping and hand grenades in Springbok 23:08

5y ago23:08

23:08

After the blood and guts we heard about last week, there is more of the same this time in the Northern Cape where General Smuts and his commando are sowing a certain degree of angst as he took control of large areas of the region.The only real problem was that capturing towns like van Rijnsdorp and Springbok were not going to win the war for the Bo…

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Episode 129 - Lord Methuen breaks a leg before Koos de la Rey executes soldiers 25:08

5y ago25:08

25:08

In this episode we will hear how General Koos de la Rey captures Lord Methuen in an act that will push Lord Kitchener over a psychological precipice. Remember when we ended last week I explained how Lord Methuen was particularly despised by both de la Rey and General Christiaan de Wet because the British commander had personally overseen the destru…

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Episode 128 -The Leliefontein Massacre & de Wet runs into British trenches 22:36

5y ago22:36

22:36

Episode 128 -The Leliefontein Massacre & de Wet runs into British trenches by Desmond LathamVon Desmond Latham

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Episode 127 -A treacherous spy meets his Nemesis and Jan Smuts heads for the beach 19:52

5y ago19:52

19:52

We’ll kick off where we left off last week – where Jan Smuts’ commando was near Calvinia in the northern Cape evading the English. But its also where commandant Bouwer was surprised by a mounted infantry unit of the British – killing or wounding 17 men who were mainly skewered by swords as they slept.Remember I explained how the colonial Lem Colyn …

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Episode 126 - Jan Smuts makes a remarkable speech & we meet the treacherous colonial Lambert Colyn 20:31

5y ago20:31

20:31

This week we’ll find out what happened to Jan Smuts and his commando as they combine forces with Kommandant van Deventer who is in the middle of a major skirmish with the British near Calvinia in the northern cape. The war is sputtering, the Boers are faltering, the British are escalating – all in all – it’s a bit like the end of the line for Smuts…

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Episode 125 - A sleepy blockhouse stymies Kitchener’s New Model Drive & Jan Smuts leaves Kakamas 18:52

5y ago18:52

18:52

February 1902 is full of surprises, not least for Lord Kitchener who has designed his great Drives which are similar to hunting Grouse on the moors of England. Lines of men walk side by side, twenty yards apart, driving the Boers before them until they are squashed against the blockhouses and posts where they are forced to surrender in droves.Well …

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Episode 124 -The incredible tale of the seven foot tall Coenraad de Buys and his independent clan 19:50

5y ago19:50

19:50

This week we’ll concentrate on surely one of the more unique southern africans of the 18th Century, who’s descendents feature as a small independent people in modern South Africa, and who found themselves stuck in a British concentration camp in the northern Transvaal town of Pietersburg in 1901. I was going to return to General Smuts, but he’s sti…

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Episode 123 - Major Vallentin eats his last lunch & General Botha fights his last Transvaal battle 18:22

5y ago18:22

18:22

This is episode 123 and its January 1902. The war has four months to run, and there are still a few big shocks. One would be Lord Methuen’s capture by General Koos de la Rey. More about that in just over a month.But in the Eastern Transvaal, the last major battle in the region took place in January, and as I’ve explained in episode 121, General Lou…

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Episode 122 - The dishonourable ex-fiancé Karel de Kock & the Witwatersrand Rifle Regiment 19:31

5y ago19:31

19:31

This is episode 122 and we will take a close look at the love-life of a Boer spy – who’s tale is laced with an unusual irony that involves a regiment called the Witwatersrand Rifles.The nature of the war had shifted again by January 1902 with the British system of blockhouses and drives beginning to create a major problem for the Boers – pushing th…

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Episode 121 - – The Kenyan Trek Boers of Eldoret & Smuts goes swimming 22:25

5y ago22:25

22:25

General Jan Smuts is making merry in the Cape, trying to stoke uprisings, while Lord Kitchener’s been more successful in clearing the Eastern Transvaal, forcing General Louis Botha to shift towards Vryheid and along the border between the Transvaal and Natal. General Christiaan de Wet is active in the Free State, while General Manie Maritz has cont…

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Episode 120 - Reitz meets a Swiss Family Robinson & Kitchener rethinks the Concentration Camp system 18:04

5y ago18:04

18:04

Its new year – the first week of January 1902 and we continue to ride, or rather walk, with Deneys Reitz as he and seven other colleagues have been separated from General Jan Smuts who is on a mission to raid the Cape – and possibly – cause an uprising of Cape Afrikaners.By now Smuts has realised that the idea of Cape Afrikaners rising up is a pipe…

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Episode 119 - A shoot out at Mr Guest’s farm after Deneys Reitz meets his English cousin 19:57

5y ago19:57

19:57

Its summer – December 1901. General Jan Smuts is on the run in the Cape Colony being chased by tens of thousands of British troops who are fixating on the fact that they don’t seem to be able to pin down this mercurial general.With him is one of our war narrators, Deneys Reitz. Or rather was with him until he became separated in late November and s…

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Episode 118 - Rawlinson surprises the Boers at Bethal & de Wet receives a Christmas present 21:45

5y ago21:45

21:45

This episode takes us to Christmas 1901 and the battle of Groenkop near Bethlehem in the Free State where General Christiaan de Wet catches the British offguard on the top of a two hundred foot high kopje. We will also hear how the opposition party leader Lloyd George narrowly escapes being lynched as a pro-Boer Brit in a night of extreme violence …

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Episode 117 - General Kritzinger is captured and Marconi sends a radio message 18:12

5y ago18:12

18:12

So its December 1901 Christmas is a fortnight away for the combatants and Christiaan de Wet was tracking his arch enemy, brother Piet. It was revenge he was after and as we all know – it’s a meal best eaten cold and unfortunately Christiaan was overheating. While he stewed on the information that his hated brother was instrumental in setting up the…

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Episode 116 -The Fawcett Commission reaches a chilling conclusion 19:50

5y ago19:50

19:50

This week its all about the scandal of the Concentration Camps which breaks across Great Britain as the Fawcett Commission releases its initial report. We also continue to monitor General Christiaan de Wet who has a large commando of 700 men and is beginning the move towards the Cape once more. His plan is to increase the pressure on the English al…

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Episode 115 – Sarah Raal rides into a trap but the dormant General de Wet awakens 17:48

5y ago17:48

17:48

This week General Christiaan De Wet who has been largely dormant for November awakens and begins to leer in the direction of the Cape once more while Sarah Raal continues to ride with Commandant Nieuwoudt and her three brothers but for how long? The presence of a woman fighting alongside the burghers in Nieuwoudt’s commando has become something of …

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Episode 114 - Sarah Raal "the lady who fought" is bloody but unbowed 20:51

5y ago20:51

20:51

This week’s episode is dominated by a young woman who we heard about last week called Sarah Raal.While some of her exploits have been exaggerated for Nationalist reasons years after the Boer War, there’s no doubt that she was extraordinary by any measure. Remember she is in her early twenties and escaped from Springfontein Concentration Camp outsid…

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Episode 113 - We meet Sarah Raal “the lady who fought” & Reitz wakes up to the threat of khaki 19:23

5y ago19:23

19:23

Episode 113 covers events happening in November 1901 with six months of the war and this podcast left to run. This week Deneys Reitz and his fellow Boers suddenly realise they should not be wearing British uniforms which they donned after running out of clothing. Lord Kitchener has issued a proclamation that any Boer found clad in British uniforms …

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Episode 112 - Kekewich’s bloody battle against General de la Rey where Boshof crawls to his death 18:00

5y ago18:00

18:00

The first week of November 1901 shipping records published in the Times of London featured regular updates such as this one:“The Armenian left Port Natal for Bombay on Nov 3 with Boer prisoners, 36 officers and 981 men. They were escorted by the following:67 th Battery RFA – Major Manifold, Captain Tapp, Lieutenant Sheppard, 2/Lieutenants Newland, …

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Episode 111 - Lord Kitchener and the Brat hunt a starling while de Wet broods at Blijdskap 20:21

5y ago20:21

20:21

The scenes have shifted recently between the war in South Africa and the effect of the war in England. The press has begun to turn against the government with vitriolic attacks on war hero Sir Redvers Buller as we heard last week.There’s more bad new for the government in the form of the Fawcett Commission made up of women sent to assess the Concen…

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Episode 110 - General Buller flayed by the press as Botha pulverises Benson at Bakenlaagte. 20:52

5y ago20:52

20:52

It’s time for reflection - and to talk about General Louis Botha who’s invasion into Natal fizzled out leading to his commando being forced to flee Lord Kitchener’s columns back to the Eastern Transvaal.But all is not lost for the man who would one day become South Africa’s first Prime Minister. It’s the final days of October 1901 when he returns t…

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Episode 109 - Borrius loses an eye and Smuts is forced to split his force 19:07

5y ago19:07

19:07

This week we pick up where we left General Jan Smuts and his commando as they writhed about in pain having eaten from a plant that they failed to prepare properly and had poisoned about half the 250 men riding with the general.Worse, they were forced to fight off a British attack on the Mountains above Port Elizabeth at the same time.They had manag…

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Episode 108 - The Commando laid low by "Hottentots Bread" within striking distance of Port Elizabeth 18:44

5y ago18:44

18:44

This is an important week - it is the 120 anniversary of the start of the Boer War - which formally began on 12th October 1899. This week saw the Anglo-Boer War Museum in Bloemfontein host a conference as part of the commemorations. Amongst the topics discussed were how all communities were affected by this war, and those attending included both pr…

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Episode 107 - Churchill doubts Kitchener & Colonel Scobell butchers Lotter in a sheep shed 20:26

5y ago20:26

20:26

It's early Spring 1901 and in England there are now serious doubts about how the British Army is going about its campaign in South Africa.Winston Churchill had been elected as an MP for Oldham partly because of his fame as a survivor of a Boer prisoner of war camp. He took issue with the manner in which the war office under Brodrick was going condu…

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Episode 106 - The 17th Lancers survived the Charge of the Light Brigade but not the Rijk Section 19:41

5y ago19:41

19:41

This is September 1901 and it's been a wet Spring so far. The weather has caused trouble for both Jan Smuts and Louis Botha - but things are about to improve for Smuts after his daring raid into the Cape Colony almost ended before it started as you’ve heard.The number 17 shall feature strongly in this episode.We will hear how the 17th Lancers who w…

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Episode 105 - General Louis Botha stumbles & sleet causes chaos for Jan Smuts 19:29

5+ y ago19:29

19:29

An incredible turn of events was taking place after a few icy months of winter - the Boers were waking up like hibernating bears and there would be a sudden escalation in incidents across south Africa.General Jan Smuts led a commando of around 400 men. He had survived three near misses after entering the Cape in the first week of September 1901. Re…

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Episode 104 - A hunchback leads Smuts to safety & Captain Gough's fatal cavalry charge 20:09

5+ y ago20:09

20:09

It’s mid September 1901 and Jan Smuts is about to face one of the most challenging moments in his illustrious career. He was only 28 at this point, yet was to achieve so much in the next few weeks and would forever be remembered as the remarkable soldier who led a tiny group of men into the mouth of the British Empire lion. His immediately challeng…

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Episode 103 - A porcupine causes a stampede & General Smuts makes a big mistake at Murderer's Way 19:06

5+ y ago19:06

19:06

We continue to rid4 with General Jan Smuts and he has just entered the Cape Colony, an invasion that has been planned to coincide with Spring in early September 1901. The master guerrilla fighter and his commando of around 400 men are in a spot of bother, however.As they entered the Cape, their route took them through Basutho territory where they w…

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Episode 102 - General Smuts enters the Cape and rides straight into a Basutho ambush 19:46

5+ y ago19:46

19:46

Spring is upon is in this podcast - so too the long-awaited invasion of the Cape Colony by General Jan Smuts and his commando.It has taken him almost a month of zig-zagging across the Free State from his base in the Eastern Transvaal to arrive at the border.Other Boer leaders had already been busy in the Cape, but they were operating in smaller uni…

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Episode 101 - De Wet’s son shot by English special forces & Jan Smuts rides into view 18:36

5+ y ago18:36

18:36

This week we hear about the Dandy Fifth and Deneys Reitz. It’s also time to ride with General Christiaan de Wet as he sums up the Blockhouses.Reitz has fallen in with “this little band” as he calls them - and most would die tragically. There were Dandy fifth were actually nine in number and led by Jack Borrius who was a short thick-set man of 28 fr…

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Episode 100 - “Send the Boers to Mexico” & Scheepers rides from Desolation Valley 16:10

5+ y ago16:10

16:10

It’s an amazing to think that back in 2017 I was thinking about this podcast and whether I should go ahead and cover a topic that was missing on both iTunes and general podcasting. Jumping in and starting in October 2017, the plan was to follow the war as it wound its way through the next three or so years. Now we're on episode 100! We’re now well …

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Episode 99 - A Devil's Gorge, an executed priest, and the madness of Breaker Morant 24:48

5+ y ago24:48

24:48

It’s early August 1901 and a series of events in a far off corner of the war would end up resonating internationally for the next one hundred and 18 years. These involved the Bushveld Carbineers, the unit of irregular troops from Australia that was eventually disbanded. I covered part of this story in an earlier podcast, Episode 72. Because most of…

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Episode 98 - Lord Kitchener issues an exile proclamation and de Wet lays an IED 18:03

5+ y ago18:03

18:03

It’s time for an exchange of letters and a proclamation or two. General Jan Smuts and his commando have broken into smaller units and are traveling from the Transvaal to the Free State / Cape border. They’re going to launch an invasion in a last-ditch attempt to entice their Afrikaner brothers living in the Cape Colony into an uprising. So far it's…

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Episode 97 - Bandits at the Southern border 17:01

5+ y ago17:01

17:01

This week we will hear about bandits at the Southern Border who are making the most of the guerrilla war raging around the Transvaal, parts of the Cape and the Free State.These motley laggards lurked close to towns and sometimes waylaid unfortunate men and women who passed by as they in turn were fleeing from the British - or the Boers. Of both. Th…

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Episode 96 - Blundering into a British blockhouse, the Dirty Dozen break up 19:29

5+ y ago19:29

19:29

It’s the third week of July 1901 and this winter has been cold even by the standards of South Africa’s high plains. As I’m writing this, snow has blanketed parts of the semi-desert known as the Karoo and it was no different then. And Deneys Reitz is close to this region. He had found a bolt hole near the Lesotho border where he’d been hiding out wi…

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Episode 95 - A Concentration Camp Commission & Maxwell has a brush with dynamite under a skirt 20:24

5+ y ago20:24

20:24

It’s mid July 1901 and it's a Southern Winter. We will also hear how the commanding officer in Pretoria, General Maxwell, meets a Petticoat commando member Johanna van Warmelo who unknown to him, is carrying explosives during their meeting. There’re awful resonances here with contemporary events. For example, Lord Kitchener writes in the London new…

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Episode 94 - The British break a Boer code and President Steyn is forced to flee wearing a nightcap 20:17

5+ y ago20:17

20:17

It’s the first week of July 1901 and the British are about to break the code both the Boers and the Dutch have been using which has meant London’s military planning at times has been beset by guess work.Not that things have gone too badly in recent months for the British. The Boers have begun to surrender in larger numbers as it becomes clear that …

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The Anglo Boer War Podcasts

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