Author: Jan Christiaan SmutsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Selections from the Smuts Papers. V. 1. June 1886 - May 1902
Author: Jan Christiaan SmutsSelections From The Smuts Papers
Author: Jan C. SmutsSelections from the Smuts Papers ...
Author: Jan Christiaan SmutsSelections from the Smuts Papers: June 1886-May 1902
Author: Jan Christiaan SmutsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Soldiers
Languages : en
Pages : 688
Book Description
Selections from the Smuts Papers. V. 2. June 1902 - May 1910
Author: Jan Christiaan SmutsSelections from the Smuts Papers ...
Author: Jan Christiaan SmutsGeneral Jan Smuts and his First World War in Africa, 1914–1917
Author: David Brock KatzPublisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1636240186
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 409
Book Description
A new assessment of Jan Smuts’s military leadership through examination of his World War I campaigning, demonstrating that he was a gifted general, conversant with the craft of maneuver warfare, and a command style steeped in the experiences of his time as a Boer general. World War I ushered in a renewed scramble for Africa. At its helm, Jan Smuts grabbed the opportunity to realize his ambition of a Greater South Africa. He set his sights upon the vast German colonies of South-West Africa and East Africa – the demise of which would end the Kaiser’s grandiose schemes for Mittelafrika. As part of his strategy to shift South Africa’s borders inexorably northward, Smuts even cast an eye toward Portuguese and Belgian African possessions. Smuts, his abilities as a general much denigrated by both his contemporary and then later modern historians, was no armchair soldier. This cabinet minister and statesman donned a uniform and led his men into battle. He learned his soldiery craft under General Koos De la Rey's tutelage, and another soldier-statesman, General Louis Botha during the South African War 1899–1902. He emerged from that war, immersed in the Boer maneuver doctrine he devastatingly waged in the guerrilla phase of that conflict. His daring and epic invasion of the Cape at the head of his commando remains legendary. The first phase of the German South West African campaign and the Afrikaner Rebellion in 1914 placed his abilities as a sound strategic thinker and a bold operational planner on display. Champing at the bit, he finally had the opportunity to command the Southern Forces in the second phase of the German South West African campaign. Placed in command of the Allied forces in East Africa in 1916, he led a mixed bag of South Africans and Imperial troops against the legendary Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Shutztruppe. Using his penchant for Boer maneuver warfare together with mounted infantry led and manned by Boer Republican veterans, he proceeded to free the vast German territory from Lettow-Vorbeck’s grip. Often leading from the front, his operational concepts were an enigma to the British under his command, remaining so to modern-day historians. Although unable to bring the elusive and wily Lettow-Vorbeck to a final decisive battle, Smuts conquered most of the territory by the end of his tenure in February 1917. General Jan Smuts and His First World War in Africa makes use of multiple archival sources and the official accounts of all the participants to provide a long-overdue reassessment of Smuts’s generalship and his role in furthering the strategic aims of South Africa and the British Empire in Africa during World War I.
Selections from the Smuts Papers
Author: Jan Christiaan SmutsPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : South Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 712
Book Description
Roberts & Kitchener in South Africa, 1900–1902
Author: Rodney AtwoodPublisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1844685640
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 387
Book Description
The British Army was shocked by three military defeats in a week in South Africa in late 1899. The commanding General Sir Redvers Buller lost his nerve. Something must be done was the cry across the Empire. Britain sent forth not one, but two military heroes. Field Marshal Lord Roberts and Major General Lord Kitchener spent their first five weeks in South Africa restoring morale, reorganising their forces and deceiving the enemy as to their intentions. In the next four weeks their offensive transformed the war: Kimberley and Ladysmith were relieved from Boer sieges and an enemy force of 4000 under General Cronje was captured on the Modder River. A long and bitter guerrilla war ensured in a terrain ideally suited to fast-moving Boer commandoes. On the dark side, deeds were committed of which no civilised empire priding itself on justice and fair play could be proud. The comradeship-in-arms of Roberts and Kitchener, their differing yet complementary personalities, their strategic and tactical decisions are described and assessed using a wide variety of sources including, personal papers and official correspondence. By these mens resourcefulness the British Army, despite its unpreparedness and poor leadership at many levels, won a remarkable victory in the first of the twentieth century Peoples Wars.
The Rand at War, 1899-1902
Author: Diana Rose CammackPublisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520068520
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
Diana Cammack provides a rich and readable account of events in the city of Johannesburg that led to the Anglo-Boer War, and she enhances our understanding of both the effects of British imperialism at the turn of the century and the development of the unique racial order of contemporary South Africa. Incorporating social, political, and military history, this work covers events on the Rand during the final year before the war including the flight of well over a hundred thousand black and white refugees in a few weeks of panic; refugee life at the coast; and work, politics, and life on the Rand and in the city between October 1899 and May 1902. Drawing on varied sources, the author provides new information for the specialist, including material on the infamous "Uitlander grievances," the motives and machinations of the Rand agitators, their role in Rand reconstruction, and their relationship with the British high commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner. The wealth of detail enhances the readability of the book which recounts this interesting period of South African history.