South African Battlefields

African Battlefields Tours with the classical Victorian Military expeditions of the Anglo Zulu wars and Anglo Boer Battlefields in KwaZulu Natal, the old Eastern Transvaal following a part of the Boer retreat, the Northern Cape of Mafekeng and Baden Powell, diamond fields of Kimberley with the Magersfontein Battlefield of the Highland Regiments and the Free State Capital of Bloemfontein with Sannaspos, Queens Fort and the Vrou memorial with the final resting place of Emily Hobhouse.

Battlefield Tours in South Africa with the Anglo Boer and Zulu Battlefields of 19th century colonial Africa. The early Dutch pioneers who in 1838 confronted the mighty Zulu empire under King Dingaan at the Battle of Blood River. In January 1879 the first British invasion of Zululand under the command of Lord Chelmsford crossed the Buffalo's River at "kwa Jim's" mission station of Rorkes Drift leading to the biggest military reverse ever inflicted on the British army against the spears of the native force of Zulu impi at the battle of Isandhlwana, a few hours later 11 VC's where won at the mission station at Rorkes Drift and the 2 VC's at Fugitives Drift amongst the first to be awarded posthumously. On the 1 June 1879 Chelmsford started his second invasion of Zululand with yet another set back, the Prince Imperial (Louis Napoleon) of France was killed in a Zulu skirmish while on patrol, due to his previous set backs Chelmsford doubled his efforts to reach the Zulu capital of Ulundi without further incidents. On the 4 July 1879 the mighty Zulu empire of the old order had been defeated within an hour of giving battle. Although there was the "Transvaal war" of 1880/1 which lasted 3 months, the British looked towards Egypt and deployed its forces into North Africa with the last full cavalry charge of the 21 Lancers in 1898.

In October 1899 the second South African war broke out against the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
A war that should never have been. In the words of Rudyard Kipling the Anglo Boer war of 1899 - 1902 "taught the British no end a lesson". In October 1899 the Boer forces where mobilized and assembled at Sandspruit on the Transvaal border and the British colony of Natal with a bold plan to strike at the seaports of Durban and Cape Town, if the plan had succeeded it would have caught the main British forces still at sea and unable to land hopefully returning the British to the negotiating table. It wasn't to be and war lasted for a further 30 months costing the British tax payer £220 million. Some famous names that have been written into History with the siege towns of Ladysmith, Mafekeng & Kimberley, a young Winston L S Churchill and his train ambush, Gandhi who offered to help with his ambulance brigade known as the "body snatchers" and Conan Doyle who wrote his account of the war during the time in South Africa. The peace accord was finally signed at the British HQ of Melrose House in Pretoria on 31 May 1902.

All Battlefields tours and travel services are personally organized and conducted by the owner, a
South African Battlefields Historian.