TOPIC:

Frank Kelley wrote: I hope he had time to reflect on that.

I doubt it! Doesn't seem like much was learnt from the ABW by the generals.

The Crimean war was roughly 50 years earlier but I do accept your point. The British army only ever learnt by its mistakes and often not the first time.
They did learn how to dig trenches from the ABW but not the futility of charging over open ground!
Something else they hadn't learnt also was that the best leaders don't necessarily come from landed gentry.
It seemed rather that it was where soldiers were living in poor or cramped conditions that the typhoid broke out; Ladysmith and Bloemfontein.

regards, Iain

Hello Iain,
The British Army learned the importance of trenchs in the Crimea before the fortress of Sevastopol, it was better to get well dug in, than be decapitated by a Russian round shot!
With particular regard to typhoid and what happened at Bloemfontein, you should bare in mind that this all started weeks earlier.
Water, or really the lack of any good water, was the real problem here.
Soldiers were forced to drink from stream to stream as they moved forward, so never the same water, typhoid was spread by water, food, flys etc, moreover, the thousands of soldiers had been living on the banks of the Modder, washing, drinking, swimming and urinating in it.
After Paardeberg, you ended up with over a thousand dead horses in there too, it was alive in fact, with typhoid.
When that army marched off, they were incubating typhoid, the warnings had been given, both subalterns and NCO's took no notice whatsoever and let their men drink unboiled water.
Kitchener, knew and chose to do nothing about it, he was short of munitions and they always came first, medical issues were not important as far as he was concerned.
Kind regards Frank

Hi Frank,

as always, you are a mine of information! (Little pun in there)

I forgot about the siege of Sevastopol and the entrenchment thereof.

Kitchener wasn't called K of chaos for nothing! A man for whom I have no respect whatsoever.

Kind regards, Iain

Hello Iain,
I am not to keen on Herbert either, though, he did have a very fine collection of china!
Kind regards Frank

iaindh wrote: Hi Frank,

as always, you are a mine of information! (Little pun in there)

I forgot about the siege of Sevastopol and the entrenchment thereof.

Kitchener wasn't called K of chaos for nothing! A man for whom I have no respect whatsoever.

Kind regards, Iain

Hello Iain,

I agree with you as does almost all the older generation of Afrikaaner. His farm burning and concentration camp episodes created much hate which still lingers today.

Regards
Adrian

iaindh wrote: Hi Frank,

Kitchener wasn't called K of chaos for nothing! A man for whom I have no respect whatsoever.

Kind regards, Iain