We continue to rid4 with General Jan Smuts and he has just entered the Cape Colony, an invasion that has been planned to coincide with Spring in early September 1901. The master guerrilla fighter and his commando of around 400 men are in a spot of bother, however.

As they entered the Cape, their route took them through Basutho territory where they were set upon by around 300 warriors armed with rifles, spears and knobkerries. As we heard last week, they managed to fight off the attack, but lost 3 dead and seven wounded.

They had also used up spare reserves of ammunition which was a big problem. This commando was supposed to immediately begin sowing mayhem inside the Cape but couldn’t do so without Lee Metford Rounds - their new choice of firearm replacing the German Mauser’s.

The Boers were now armed with the same weapons as the British because their supply chains had dried up and were using attacks on the British to replenish ammunition and other material.

Our narrator since the start of this podcast series, Deneys Reitz, had joined General Smuts along with ten others just before they crossed the Orange River into the Cape. He had only four rounds left after the clash with Basutho warriors that almost cost him his life.

Invading hostile territory with a virtually empty rifle was not going to build confidence and Reitz fretted about this.