It’s December 1899 and the British have already registered 3 000 casualties in various battles across South Africa. The latest we heard about was the Battle of Colenso on 15th December in Natal where the British casualty rate topped 1 130 with over 700 wounded and the result cost Commander in Chief General Buller his job .

These are numbers that alarmed the public and the government back in London.

The Boers had been perceived as a shambolic rabble ripe for the plucking, the gold bugs who owned the mines and financed the gold diggings back in Johannesburg had propagated and pushed for a war, now their brethren were paying the price in blood for their greed and their Imperialist aims.

The Boers were no pushovers. In fact, in all major battles between October and December, they had consistently outfought and outthought the British across the country in different environments.