Featured battle : Magersfontein

Part of The 2nd Boer War (or Three Years War)

Date : 10 December 1899 - 11 December 1899

The second of the 'Black Week' battles. The Boers under Koos de la Rey dug 20km of thin, deep trenches in front of Magersfontein in the path of Lord Methuen, fronting them with barbed wire entanglements and camouflaging their positions with bushes and branches. Methuen thought he had found their trenches so began the fight with a heavy bombardment of high-explosive artillery on the 10th. This however had almost no effect on the Boers in their dugout positions. When the Highland Brigade under Maj.Gen Andrew Wauchope advanced against these positions the following day at dawn they marched into a hail of Mauser rounds. The Black Watch and Seaforth Highlanders fell back to cover but were pinned down and lay under the blazing sun most of the rest of the day. Gen Wauchope led a column through a gap in the Boer lines but was shot dead before he broke through. About 100 highlanders did reach the hill though but Cronje and only 7 men on the hill itself made enough noise to suggest a much larger party and the Highlanders fell back. A party of Gordon Highlanders also charged the lines but too were cut down. Later in the afternoon a temporary cease-fire was negotiated to collect the wounded and dead.

Wellington's History of the Peninsular War

Stuart Reid
In this book we find the four long memoranda concerning the Peninsular war which Wellington wrote. He only did this for the years 1808, 1809, 1810 and 1811; it is a pity that he did not do the same for the remaining years of the war. However these years are covered by the author in selecting some dispatches from Wellington concerning the major battles 1812 to 1814. This is the first time that this material has been brought together as a continuous narrative. It is supported by brief summaries of the careers of the officers mentioned in Wellington’s dispatches, by a set of 21 very nice annotated colour plates, and 8 moderately useful maps. Appendix 2 is particularly worthy of mention as it contains a breakdown of the Peninsular army from 1808 -1814. It goes into much detail even to the extent of movement of regiments between division and temporary commands of various formations.
What I found really interesting is the way Wellington writes about events, actions and other people which reveals so much about himself. The times he goes through the thought process in considering the for and against an action proceeding to explain why he came to the conclusion he reached. He constantly makes reference to the well being of the men and to the subsistence of both men and animals. He held to Napoleon’s maxim ‘an army marches on its stomach’ far better than Napoleon ever did. This is Wellington’s performance review of his own and his subordinates actions and we see a generous nature in his praise of them.
This is a very good read for the general reader and a valuable resource for the specialist. We highly recommend it.

Frontline Books, 2019