Black Week : The British Army and Defeat in the Anglo-boer War 1899-1900, Har...

by Barry, Quintin

€40 · Offered by eBay

Black Week : The British Army and Defeat in the Anglo-boer War 1, Hardcover by Barry, Quintin, ISBN 1804511862, ISBN-13 9781804511862, Like New Used, Free P&P in the UK In 1899, Britain faced unexpected defeats in the Second Boer War, challenging their confidence and prompting a major military 1899 few readers of Rudyard Kipling’s poem 'The Absent Minded Beggar,’ in which he wrote of 'Fifty thousand horse and foot going to Table Bay,’ could have supposed that this army faced any serious risk of defeat from a handful of Boer farmers. Great Britain was going to war with the Boer Republics in order to assert her supremacy over South Africa, and had mobilised a complete army corps, under General Sir Redvers Buller. This was a force considered to be more than ample to bring about rapid before year’s end, in the space of one week, the British Army had suffered three defeats, at Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso. For the British press and public the shock was enormous. The Battle of Colenso in particular destroyed many illusions about the army’s military effectiveness, and so far as the government was concerned, confidence in Buller’s leadership was shattered. As commander-in-chief in South Africa, it turned to Lord Frederick Roberts, and prepared to overcome the battlefield setbacks by despatching substantial these decisions could take effect, however, the disastrous Battle of Spion Kop had been fought, further exposing the failures in leadership the government, and the British

• Year: 1899
• ISBN: 9781804511862
• Condition: Fine

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