Episode 69 - The Machine called Lord Kitchener sets the veld ablaze

There’s going to be a lot of riding in this episode, much fighting, and some shock as the Boers in the field begin to observe at first hand the new British policy of scorched earth where all Boer property is destroyed in an attempt to bring them to heel. What a mistake. It’s a bit like the Bombing blitz of the Second World War in London. Hitler and his henchmen thought the English would crumble if their cities were attacked by air - all that did is convice the English to fight all the more and oppose the Germans to the death. Before starting this week, I have some good news. I have been approached by a film-maker to work on a fairly lengthy documentary series which we hope will air on a number of outlets once complete. In connection with this, we need to start compiling a great deal of images and even film. If you’re able to help, please do contact me through the website, abwarpodcast.com, or my email, [email protected]. I’ll be providing more information about this in the upcoming podcasts. But exciting news nevertheless. Back to this week’s episode. So it was then in mid-January 1901 that Deneys Reitz was camping on open ground as part of the commando led by General Beyers known and under the overall command of General Louis Botha when the storm of war broke once more. Reitz was encamped at Olifantsfontein - or Elephant Spring - when Louis Botha rode up with a small escort. He had lost weight in the preceding months. Botha briefed the commando, saying the British had decided to bring the Boers to their knees by a series of drives, in which vast numbers of troops were to sweep across the country like a dragnet. Fifty thousand men had been assembled along the Johannesburg Natal railway line and these were ready to move over the highveld on a front one hundred kilometres wide. The idea was to clear the Eastern Transvaal and to take every single Boer fighter dead or alive. Reitz was not aware at this point that the British had begun to systematically burn farms, destroy crops and carry off the Boer women and children. The British had also been forcing black workers on the farms to join the prisoners in these Concentration camps.