Review by Vivien Horler

The Anglo-Boer War in 100 Objects, edited by Johan van Zÿl and created by the War Museum of the Boer Republics (Jonathan Ball Publishers)

War might be a ghastly waste of life and a failure of diplomacy, but it does seem to promote extraordinary human ingenuity.

Or, in this context: ’n Boer maak a plan.

You’re a member of a Boer commando in the guerilla phase of the Anglo-Boer War, and it has been decided by a war council of senior Boers, including presidents Paul Kruger and MT Steyn, that the British communication systems must be disrupted.

Your capital cities have been occupied, you have no access to industrial workshops, and you are waging war on the back of a horse. How do you derail the trains and blow up the bridges that the British depend upon?

Captain Henri Slegtkamp, a Dutch-born member of Captain Danie Theron’s Reconnaissance Corps, came up with the idea of a “trein vernieler” or train wrecker. The Boers would place a few sticks of dynamite and part of a Martini-Henry rifle bolt containing a single round under the rail. When a train passed, its weight depressed rail on to the trigger, firing the round into the dynamite and detonating it.

The Brits could be ingenious too. During the siege of Mafeking, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, commander of the British garrison in the town, had limited artillery to hand: seven aging .303 Maxim machine guns and seven artillery pieces. But they also had the Lord Nelson, an old ship’s cannon which they used to fire dynamite grenades at Boer positions.

And where did they find a ship’s cannon in the inland semi-desert town? It was being used as a gatepost. Continue reading →