The Scorched Earth Policy
As far as one could see, the “enemy covered everything; they came with horse riders and men on foot behind. It was as if death were upon us”.
“In a moment they sprang from their horses and beat to death all the animals that were there; yes, they did no mind even though the animals crept amongst us, but they beat them dead, they were so cruel; and me must just look on.”
“The following day they came again and took us away. There were 19 ox-wagons . . . but they only gave us 40 women and children four wagons whereupon we must go. We loaded these with food and our clothing, when all was ready they set fire to the wagons which was loaded with the food and clothing. . . so we had nothing but the clothes on our bodies."
“That evening, there was bitter weeping amongst the little children,” wrote Hessie Meijer in her account of the Scorched Earth Policy. This was captured by Emily Hobhouse, who included Meijer and several other women’s accounts of their experiences of the Anlgo-Boer War in her book, War Without Glamour. Due to safety reasons, it was sometimes the case that several women would gather on one farm – or move between farms with their children - as was the situation in this case.
When the war dragged on much longer than anticipated, due to the guerrilla tactics used by the Boer commandos, it became extremely costly and an embarrassment for the British Army. On top of that, the Boer women kept on farming, which secured a good supply of rations for the Boer commandos. It also supplied fodder for the horses, information about British troop movements, and medical care for the injured.
British generals – and cabinet ministers – became frustrated. The war was costly and globally humiliating. It clearly called for an uncompromising strategy, by striking at the root of the enemy's survival.
The British Commander in Chief, Lord Roberts decides that for every attack on a railway line, the closest Boer homestead will be burned to the ground. Later, he expands this: for any Boer attack at all, the response will be to burn down every home within a radius of 10 miles.
Lord Herbert Kitchener replaces Roberts. He orders complete destruction. Every farmhouse in the Transvaal and Orange Free State that could shield the enemy was burned to the ground, along with the outbuildings and grain stores. Livestock killed, crops burned, fruit trees cut down, wells poisoned. In some cases, dynamite was used to blow up buildings.
As Mrs Grobler wrote in her diary: “It was terrible to see how my valuable house was laid to waste. All was taken, food and clothes, only a little bed and two blankets could I retain…In a few moments time my beautiful house stood in fire and flame. The outside [buildings] were blown up with dynamite.”
Women and children were forced into concentration camps. They were taken by ox-wagon and/or had to walk long distances. In some cases, part of their journey was in open railway trucks.
Kitchener orders troops to remove every means of survival from the enemy to see how long they can last. Boers were starved in the field, this became known as the Scorched Earth Policy.
Some 30,000 farms in the Transvaal and Free State were annihilated, along with about 100,000 dwellings of their workers. An estimated 40 small towns were partially destroyed, and tens of thousands of families faced destitution.
Perhaps the psychological violence with which the Scorched Earth policy was implemented against the civilian population was its most appalling aspect. The powerlessness of the British military leaders in trying to force the Boere in the field to surrender, as well as their embarrassment when the hit-and-run tactics of the Boer commandos caused damage and loss of life to the British columns, made some British commanders increasingly indifferent towards the civilian population, writes historian A.W.G Raath.
By stripping the land of everything that could be of assistance to the die-hard Boers in their continued liberation struggle, the British hoped to undermine their adversaries’ ability and will to fight on, writes Prof André Wessels, a historian at the University of the Free State.
Yet despite nearly every homestead and outbuilding being burned down, the women and children being taken to concentration camps, and captured Boere or those who laid down their arms being sent to overseas prisoner-of-war camps – the Boere continued fighting.
Kitchener issued proclamations aimed at scaring the Boers. For example, in a proclamation of 7 August 1901, he threatened to banish those guerrillas who did not surrender by 15 September. The Boers contemptuously referred to the British proclamations as “paper bombs” but suffered from their consequences nonetheless.“
Then suddenly they began with the burning of houses. Indeed, one can say that from that moment began the greatest destruction. We had to look on at this, and see how they climbed the mountains and from all directions brought in the women and drove the cattle…”
“It was a heart moving spectacle to watch the women carried away on bare wagons, exposed to the sun’s rays, the wind and the dust. There were women amongst them with babies at the breast. It was enough to draw tears from our eyes as we thought how once we were queens in our homes and now plunged into this misery,” wrote A. M van den Berg in her journal.
Sources1. Boer guerrilla and British counter-guerrilla operations in South Africa, 1899 to 1902, A. Wessels. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies / Vol. 39 No. 2 (2011)
2. War without Glamour, Emily Hobhouse
