Description
This is a selection of discrete battle pieces, not a connected history of the war. The essays are concise and present the chosen actions and their lessons clearly. Its value for money, especially if second-hand.
The author who has selected for discussion and analysis five battles fought within three months, and fought not primarily to defeat the enemy and occupy his capitals, but to relieve Kimberley and Ladysmith, the fall of either of which “would severely have damaged Britain’s prestige not only in Africa but throughout the Empire and the world. By the time the fifth battle Spion Kop, was over, though Kimberley and Ladysmith we still unrelieved, it was impossible that the Boers could win. The Boer War lasted thirty one months and cost Britain twenty two thousand lives, of whom sixteen thousand died of disease. It added two million pounds to the National Debt and caused a rise in income tax from eight pence to one and threepence in the pound
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