Bronkhorstspruit - First Boer Battle with Brittain - Ownage

"The Boers' method of fighting" in The Illustrated London News, 1881

On 20 December 1880, as part of colonial exploits of the British Empire, a just short of 250 British soldiers were marching to Pretoria when a similar number of Boers (Afrikaner farmers) made their presence known.

The British O.C. Lt Col. Philip Robert Anstruther met the Boer representative who conveyed a request from the government of the Transvaal in Pretoria to turn back, a request the Colonel denied to his chagrin.

The group of Boers had covertly positioned themselves just two hundred yards away and opened fire and within 15 minutes, 156 British, including most of the officers, had been killed. The remainder were taken prisoner and the Boers had lost only two men.

This was fairly typical of future battles between the British and the Boers as the Boers fought with what can only be said to be a superior approach, choosing life over bravado and to present only the barest minimum target rather than marching into battle.

The Boers fighting method was a wake up call to the British and was not easy to emulate.

Here is a link to some information about the conditions, strategies, logistics, abilities and resources which characterized the Boer approach to warfare.

It took only four months for the untrained farmers of the Transvaal Republic to beat the armies of the greatest Empire the world had ever seen in the First Boer War or Anglo Boer War.