Now we swing back to the Orange Free State and there’s a very good reason. His name is General Christian de Wet the famous Boer commander. If there was ever a person who fit the bill as cometh the hour, cometh the man - it was de Wet.

He’d convinced his officer commanding General Joubert to allow the Free Staters to leave for home after Bloemfontein was captured by the British. De Wet’s logic was simple. His men had been away from home for six months fighting the mighty British empire and despite incredible victories, they’d lost the Orange Free State Republic capital.

Six months away from home meant most were missing their loved ones — although some had brought their entire families who moved with the Boer commandos in their ox-wagons.

So de Wet took a momentous gamble. He’d sent the men home saying they should re-assemble back on the railway bridge over the Sand River north of Bloemfonteon on the 25th March. While his decision was regarded as military suicide by Joubert, the British had made it easy for him. Lord Roberts had called a halt to his march to Pretoria in order to rest the troops and wait for his logistics to catch up. Both sides took a breather.

Historians are quick to point out that Lord Roberts had created a nightmare by overriding his logistics leadership and adopted a gung-ho attitude to the movement of his material - now he was paying for his rash decision to put the bloody thirsty Lord Kitchener .. your country needs you … in charge of food, provisions, equipment, support, transport.