Blowing up Boer-dom

As well as reenacting 1919 we also travelled back in time to the Second Boer War. This was an arena display with the Heilbron Commando taking the staring role together with several groups portraying British units. The Bluejackets were manning the artillery, unfortunately this meant that we also had to get it to the field of battle as well. Normally our gun would have had a crew of 18 to move it. We had 7. Even doing this over the fairly flat and smooth ground of the fields near Kelmarsh Hall certainly showed me how hard it would have been to maneaver one of these weapons though the South African veld.

The battle started with an Australian mounted partol coming across a Boer farmstead. At the point that we were reenacting the Boers
were heavily outnumbered by the British. They could not win in a pitched battle so instead they used their mobility to mount guerilla style raids on British infrastructure like railways and telegraphs. The members of a commando were recruited from the area that they operated in and wore no uniforms, so anybody of military age could have been one. Unable to tell friend from foe, or lure the enemy into an open battle which they could win, the British resorted to more extreme tactics. Remember, we didn't get such a huge empire by being nice.

In our demonstration the bread steallers find a man or military age in the farmstead and decide that he must be part of the Boer Commando that is terrorising the area. Since he was not in uniform they were going to treat him as a spy, but just as the execution was about to take place the real Beor Commando rides to the rescue. A Boer sharp shooter takes out the officer commanding the British contingent, there were many excelent snipers amoungst the Boer forces, and then the cavalry scatters the Aussies. The tables are turned and it could be all over for the British, but it turns out that the Australian partol is just a scouting party for a larger British contingent. Fresh British infantry marches in to engage the enemy, with supporting fire from a naval detachment. Outgunnned and outnumbered the Boers do what any good guerilla force does, they race off to fade into vast expanse of the veld ready to fight again another day.