Stormberg - A Lost Opportunity : The Anglo-Boer War in the North-Eastern Cape Colony, 1899-1902 by Johannes Meintjies
Very Elusive and scarce first edition--even more so as this Scarce copy was signed by the author Johannes Meintjies.
Stormberg - A Lost Opportunity : The Anglo-Boer War in the North-Eastern Cape Colony, 1899-1902 by Johannes Meintjies
Hardcover
Publisher: Nasionale Boekhandel, 1969 first edition
Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition. The DJ has some limited signs of wear and tear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. The book is protected with a Cellophane cover.
The inside front jacket reads: Lieutenant General Sir William Forbes Gatacre came to South Africa, with its reputation of being the grave of many a military career, in the Anglo Boer war with a service record which made him the hero of British sympathisers. Winston Churchill recalled at the time that in the Sudan he had shown great courage but also a rashness which provoked much criticism. To the Tommies under him he was "General Back-acher", who drove them mercilessly, but won their respect by his willingness to do everything for which he called upon them, himself. As commander-in-chief of the British forces in the North Eastern Cape he was opposed by the Boer Generals Olivier, du Plooy, Steenkamp and Swanepoel who had built their defensive position around the solidly constructed fortifications at Storm berg Junction left by the Naval Brigade when they evacuated the region. They were content to play a waiting game, taking their cue from the old Boer adage: wait for the tortoise to put its head out and then cut it off. The result was a battle characterised by strange blunders and confusion on the British side, and almost incredible strokes of luck on the part of the Boers. The Boer victory took its place among the series of disasters known to the British as Black Week. Johannes Meintjes examines the circumstances around the battle and attempts to uncover what really did happen, but his interest lies as much in the individuals who were a part of it and their fortunes, the vagaries of a man and his fate, as in the battle itself.
