CHAPTER 3

PAARDEBERG

A Change of Misfortune

I would have to say that the British impressed me with their discipline. I had never seen men die so well.—Pieter Krueler

For the next two weeks Krueler and Ley traveled by wagon and on horseback, respectively, as a detachment of Christiaan De Wet’s commando. They sent several wagons of captured supplies to the various outposts, and they would remain at Cronje’s command post at Magersfontein as the Boers reshuffled their forces. The British had made certain progress, despite their setbacks, if only in small gains. Meantime, word had reached Botha and the other commanders that Lord Roberts was moving a vast force towards Kmberley.181 Roberts had received word of the Spion Kop disaster on January 26, and there were rumors of a Cape uprising amongst the black natives, further disturbing his plans.¹⁸²

By February 13, 1900, Krueler had recovered enough to ride again. His wound had healed and the rough-hewn sutures had been removed, leaving deep red scars. Two days later he and Ley joined in a raid with De Wet and two hundred commandos on a British supply convoy at Waterval Drift. The British and their animal-drawn wagons had been exhausted and slowed in crossing the muddy river, all the time observed by the concealed commandos. The raid was a success and the three thousand oxen not captured were stampeded, and De Wet rode off with two hundred full wagons of food and medical supplies.¹⁸³ However, that welcome news was soon followed by a disaster.

The creation of concentration camps, a term the world would learn well a half century later, became the preferred British method of incarceration for Boer civilians. It was believed that if the Boers knew that their families were in British hands it would demoralize the Boer fighters. This attempt at psychological warfare backfired. Once word spread about the civilians being gathered and forced into the camps, the mood of the guerrillas changed. The war went from being a conflict of national interest and survival into a personal struggle for many of the commandos. Koos Ley heard that his own family had been captured. He had a younger brother, and his widowed mother was not in good health.184

Four thousand of the five thousand Boers at Magersfontein had decided to leave on Cronje’s order, despite the objections from his best commanders, I.S. Ferreira and De Wet, who did not agree with his route of retreat, which was “along the wooded banks of the Modder River towards Bloemfontein.”¹⁸⁵ Among them was Paul Krueler, young Pieter’s older brother.

This order posed a problem for De Wet as it would interfere with a growing and successful guerrilla campaign he had launched. The retreat toward Bloemfontein was not welcome news, considering the long supply column of captured British wagons, their own wagons, and the families that had been traveling with them, which slowed the rate of march to less than ten miles per day.¹⁸⁶ On February 17, 1900, as the ponderous caravan of just over four thousand Boers who had joined the journey (the rest either remained or dispersed) moved along the Modder River, the British detected their movement. Soon Paardeberg would become another small hell on earth. “Suddenly, shells began to burst among them, fired from artillery on a kopje (hillock) about 1,200 yards away. The attack threw the Boers into shock and confusion as the devastation spread around the laager, destroying wagons and killing animals. The British had caught up with them.”¹⁸⁷

Cronje was still in command and De Wet had to follow orders, although his commando continued riding along the outer periphery in his own personal guerrilla operation. The massive wagon train continued until they linked up with another unit, which saw Pieter and Paul Krueler reunited for the first time since October 1899. Pieter introduced Paul to Koos Ley and the three forged a strong triumvirate. It was Cronje who had to confirm to Piet and Paul that their father was dead, and their family members were possibly in a British camp. They also had word that their uncle Paul had been killed earlier, with his family included during a roundup and interned. The details at that time were unknown. Krueler would learn the truth after the guns of war fell silent: his father’s brother had been executed.188

As the two brothers and Koos Ley watered their horses, lost in their own thoughts, they were unaware that the riverbank would become as famous as Spion Kop, Ladysmith and Kimberley.¹⁸⁹ They were also unaware that, as the moon rose and shimmered on the slow moving Modder River on the night of Saturday, February 17, 1900, a British force was closing in.¹⁹⁰

Just as dawn broke on Sunday, February 18, the forward element of Roberts’s force under Gen. John French had found the circled wagon laager of Cronje’s forces after they halted on the Vendutie Drift.¹⁹¹ Cronje must have known that he had made a great tactical error and underestimated the rate of march of the British. The four thousand Boers were being assaulted by fifteen thousand troops and artillery; their only salvation was to dig quick fighting holes in the muddy river bank to escape the shelling and rifle fire.¹⁹² On February 18 news also arrived by a mounted messenger that Kimberley had been taken by the British under General French, their current nemesis.

On a personal note, it was on this day that Piet Krueler learned that his father had been killed and that his mother, younger brother and sister were in British “protective” custody. He did not know exactly where they were being held. This was the beginning of what would become a controversial Ktchener policy of much larger round-ups of civilians by British forces.

The order had been given to dig in: “It proved to be their greatest blunder of the battle.”¹⁹³ Koos, Paul and Piet each rapidly dug a position, but only managed to get the trench waist high before the first of the heavy artillery rounds began landing among them. The enemy soldiers were still a thousand yards away but closing, their khaki clothing blending into the dusty landscape. Only the smoke rising from their weapons betrayed the location of the advancing British, who could be seen firing in the prone and kneeling positions. De Wet’s commandos were still fifteen miles away when they heard the sound of gunfire.¹⁹⁴

In Military History magazine Peter Holt wrote, “French expected a hard fight. Given the disparity in numbers against him, and with both sides anticipating the imminent arrival of Cronje’s subordinate, Commandant J.S. Ferreira, with 1,500 men from the north, French had to keep the Boers off balance. He did so by pounding the laager and the surrounding area with artillery, buying time for the main body of the army to catch up.” Due to Roberts being ill, Kitchener took operational command of the British force. Many sources agree that Kitchener was an aggressive and thoughtful planner and leader, although, according to William McElwee, and cited by Holt, Kitchener lacked “the understanding of the tactical realities of modern warfare.” 195

By 1630 hours the Boer cavalry were six miles from Paardeberg, and De Wet surveyed the scene:

Immediately in front of us were the buildings and Kraals and there on the opposite bank of the river stood Paardeberg. To the left and right of it were khaki colored groups dotted everywhere about… . What a spectacle we saw! All round the laager were the guns of the English, belching forth death and destruction, while from within it at every moment, as each successive shell tore up the ground, there rose a cloud—a dark red cloud of dust. It was necessary to act—but how? We decided to make an immediate attack on the nearest of Lord Roberts’s troops … and to seize some ridges which lay about two and a half miles southeast of the laager.¹⁹⁶

As De Wet’s men rode off to attack the British rear guard and attempted to capture high ground, the Boers of Cronje’s group dug their holes and piled the wet mud and clay-like soil up in front, creating parapets that offered cover and concealment. French’s cavalry and the accompanying 6th Infantry Division, under Lt. Gen. Thomas Kelly-Kenny, who was well aware of the Boer defenses, did not want to commit his forces to a frontal infantry attack across open ground.¹⁹⁷ Instead, he wanted to surround the Boers and cut off any avenue of escape, while blocking any relief column, and then pound the enemy into submission. Once the Boers were weakened he would launch his infantry in a double envelopment in support of French’s cavalry assault.¹⁹⁸

However, as would happen too often in the Great War in Europe that followed a scant decade and a half later, an intellectually inferior and less lucid superior officer countered his plan. Major General Lord Kitchener, Roberts’s chief of staff, was, like his superior, already a household name in Britain. In time, along with Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig and Lord Gordon, he would become one of the most controversial British military leaders in modern history. Kitchener was anxious and unimpressed by his enemy (a character flaw he would demonstrate later in his career), and he ordered an immediate infantry assault. This type of order would become familiar in the not-too-distant-future when commanders like Kitchener would have men go “over the top” from the trenches of Flanders fields. The Boers could read idiocy and arrogance in an opponent, but they also understood determination, and a determined man, if even stupid may prevail. The Boers just expected to make the British pay heavily for any gains they made.

Kitchener’s methods were as flawed as his logic, hence the disastrous results of his actions during his career. As stated by Pakenham: “Kitchener displayed no interest in learning from the mistakes of Buller and Methuen. He probably attributed their own failures, as Roberts did, to their own personal defects, especially, in Buller’s case to his own supposed lack of self confidence.”199

Cronje desperately needed De Wet’s mounted force of sixteen hundred men, as forty thousand British soldiers with one hundred field guns converged on Cronje and his collection of commandos and civilians.²⁰⁰ Reitz had gathered a force of eight hundred mounted Boers for a diversionary raid into Zululand.²⁰¹ However, De Wet knew that his best course of action was to harass the British and divert their attention, drawing some of their assets away from Cronje. He planned to accomplish this by using the high mobility of his cavalry, avoiding a direct confrontation. According to Krueler, De Wet called it “the death from a thousand cuts.”²⁰²

Paul, Koos and Piet gathered several bandoleers of ammunition, while other men dug their holes, continuously piling mud and dirt in front of their positions. Depth was life. They also began digging towards the other holes to their left and right at forty-five degree angles, building an ad hoc trench line. Every third man maintained a vigil with his weapon while the others dug.²⁰³

The purpose of the zigzag trench line was in case the enemy entered the trench. An enemy infantryman could fire ten feet along the line of the trench and kill those men, but the sharp angle of the wall prevented further damage down the line. It also allowed the Boers to fire around the corner and repel any further advance. The Boers had learned from the British error of a straight trench line, where a full volley, especially of artillery could kill dozens of men, thus allowing them to occupy that position. That had been a great killer of Buller’s force at Spion Kop. The British learned these lessons and later copied the Boer method in the Great War.

Cronje himself ran to the various positions, identifying the commanders and shouting encouragement. He should have, for it was his poor decision to halt the column and allow the British forces to catch up that had created this debacle. The men worked furiously to dig their holes and connect the trenches, only interrupted by the occasional exploding shells. Women worked helping fill canvas bags with soil to stack around the wagons as protection. The small Krupp artillery pieces towed by the oxen were also sandbagged and the ammunition placed into protective holes dug out next to them.204

The first few dozen British artillery shells screamed in overhead, with most of the rounds striking around the circle of wagons. A few rounds actually landed within the circle, blowing up several wagons and their contents. The bodies of those within and around the wagons were blown in all directions. A large volume of British rifle fire was also experienced, keeping the Boers’ heads down while the bulk of the infantry force, led by the 1st Welsh and 1st Essex, advanced.²⁰⁵

The Krueler brothers and Koos Ley had far more targets than ammunition. Piet and Koos ran back and forth from the closest ammunition wagon many times, dragging the wooden crates of ammunition for all the men in the collective trench to break open and reload. Paul himself maintained a verbal count each time he dropped a soldier, not knowing if they were dead or wounded. All he cared about was that they were not advancing. Piet also maintained a count in his head, with thirty-nine being his count marked on an empty ammunition crate before he left for his third ammunition run.²⁰⁶

One of the young men in their group, who was perhaps eighteen years old, was a runner. He carried information on the enemy movement back and forth between Cronje and the various fighting positions. Occasionally, he brought ammunition and some water, never carrying a weapon, allowing him to run faster and carry the much-needed supplies. He had just dropped off a jug of water, as Koos Ley left for ammunition, when the shriek of a twelve-pound shell blasted through the parapet between the Krueler brothers. The main force of the blast was outward and upward. The Kruelers dropped into their trench, but the boy runner was cut in half where he stood; his torso falling forward into the Kruelers’ fighting position. Both boys were covered in blood and entrails.²⁰⁷

Pieter panicked and tried to get out of the hole but Paul held him down, calming him, explaining that he would also be killed if he exposed himself More shells fell, screams were heard and another explosion rocked the ground as an ammunition wagon took a direct hit. The concussion shook all the men over a hundred yards and more, and the heat wave enveloped them, scorching the earth around it. Koos was thrown to the ground and rendered unconscious. The debris fell for almost a minute. Soon, another runner came to their position.208

“Pieter, the general wants you,” and with that the young man ran back. Paul told him to go quickly, that “it must be important.” The younger brother took his rifle and jumped out of the trench line, hoping he would not be killed by the flying shrapnel or the occasional British bullet. As he ran along the top of the connecting trenches, he saw the dead and wounded sprawled about both above and below ground. ²⁰⁹

He could not stop to think about it. As he ran he saw Koos lying on the ground and he went to him: “He did not appear wounded; in fact there was no blood. His eyes opened, but I did not think he could hear me. I grabbed him under the arms and dragged him with me, placing him under a wagon behind some dirt-filled bags. Then I went to see Cronje.” Upon reaching the general he was given a verbal order to carry to De Wet, if he could find him: “Tell De Wet to send three hundred men around to my right, where their infantry is weakest, and the rest should attack the enemy’s rear and left, go now,” Cronje ordered. ²¹⁰

Piet left the general and jumped on his horse still tethered to a wagon, and one of the few animals still unharmed. He went into a full gallop, knowing that the cavalry under De Wet had to be close. He rode south, keeping the British infantry in sight, and after half an hour located the small dots on horseback. Taking his field glasses, he saw they were Boers. Riding up with his rifle in the air in the hope they would not shoot him he found one of De Wet’s officers. He gave the man the verbal message, as De Wet had already divided his force into two echelons, anticipating that very maneuver.²¹¹

“Good boy, now join us. I am certain we will have news for you to send back,” the man said. For the rest of the day Piet rode with the cavalry as they made their quick gallops against the infantry, which they approached rapidly, fired into them and then rode away. They did the same with the British cavalry, as Krueler observed:

De Wet had planned all of this out while in the saddle. That was the kind of man he was. Quick thinking. Around two hundred commandos dismounted, and hid their horses behind a small ridge, out of sight. The other four hundred men rode against the cavalry on their flanks, firing. I was with them. We would ride around, and wait until they fired, the great clouds of smoke would provide some concealment. We would hit them, killing many, wounding many more, then ride away.

The purpose was to draw them into chasing us. Finally, on the third assault this worked. A group of maybe thirty British horsemen decided to pursue a smaller diversionary group. This was their end. Our men rode up and over the small ridge hiding the two hundred men and their horses. As the British exposed themselves over the top the men lying prone opened fire. There were no survivors, and many of the horses were also killed or mortally wounded, braying and bleeding. We did this trick several times, all with the same result, until a rider arrived and ordered us to join the main group to the east. They had suffered losses as well, and we were unable to retrieve the dead.212

Piet was sent back to Cronje with a message from De Wet: “Cannot reach you, will do what I can from here.” Piet took several hours of riding at night to try to find a way back into the laager without being observed. He waited until many of the British surrounding their wagons and positions quieted down, until around midnight, and then slowly walked his horse through their position. Looking farther, he saw the fires of the Boer camp almost a thousand yards away.²¹³

Taking a deep breath, he slowly mounted his horse, and used his heels to kick the animal, which lurched forward, rapidly picking up speed. Horse and rider swept through the British, who were stirred by the noise of the clapping hooves. Many were laying down, others sitting and talking to each other. As he stormed through the camp, a few British soldiers were knocked over by the horse. Bent down low and forward over the saddle, Krueler heard a few rifles firing, the snap of the bullets passing by, the “thud” of a few rounds striking the horse, causing it to buck and sway under him.²¹⁴

He had covered more than half the distance to his camp when the animal finally collapsed headfirst, pitching him up and over. He released his grip on the reigns and slipped his feet out of the stirrups. He still held on to his Mauser and tucked himself into a forward lunge, hitting the ground, rolling like a ball and then sliding along. The air was knocked out of his lungs. He cleared his head, sat up, and looked back. The horse was lying dead more than ten feet behind him. This was the second time a horse had been shot out from under him.215

Then Krueler heard the sounds of other horses, and looking up he saw five British cavalrymen riding down on him. The moonlight obscured by clouds still offered some dim light. Sighting in carefully despite the excitement, he fired, knocking one soldier off his horse from perhaps four hundred yards away. He then sighted another mounted soldier, squeezed the trigger and the soldier fell backward to the ground.²¹⁶ The three remaining British soldiers kept approaching, with one firing from the saddle, although none of the bullets came near Krueler, who killed a horse and shot another rider out of the saddle, forcing the remaining two enemy riders to reconsider their options. They began turning away when other rifle shots rang out from behind Krueler, startling him. The two remaining British riders fell dead from their horses. Looking to his rear Krueler saw four Boers on horseback. They had seen and heard the entire event and were coming to his rescue. He recognized one of the riders, a large barrel-chested man with a full yellow beard. The man grabbed him by the arm and effortlessly swung him onto the back of his horse without saying a word. Krueler somehow still had his Mauser rifle in his hands. The Boers recovered two of the British horses that were still alive.²¹⁷

They rode back to the laager and Piet thanked the men and asked for General Cronje, and they took him to his tent where he delivered the verbal message from De Wet, which did not make Cronje smile. Then the general told him to sit down. His brother Paul had been killed late that day after he had left to meet with De Wet’s commandos. By now Piet had seen much and endured all the hardships of any seasoned Boer. Despite his status as a trusted and valuable commando, treated as (and expected to be) a man, Cronje placed his arm around him. He held him in a fatherly fashion as the fourteen-year-old veteran wept.²¹⁸

Cronje knew that the boy was now alone, with the exception of his friend, the messenger Koos Ley. His older brother and father were dead, his younger brother, sister and mother in British hands, their fates unknown. Cronje understood the situation well. His own wife was one of the trapped civilians suffering during the battle in his own convoy.²¹⁹

“Take some time for yourself Your job here is finished for now. I will have some food brought to you. Then get some rest. You have done very well, young one,” Cronje told him. Soon Koos Ley came to see him, his eyes bloodshot from the concussion he had received. Then one of the wives brought them both a plate of cooked horsemeat. Cronje had ordered the dead animals butchered and eaten to avoid the spread of disease, and save their captured salted beef. The fresh meat would also keep the men going, as they were effectively cut off from the outside world and fresh supplies.220

Pieter could not eat. He tried, but he just could not swallow. His leg still hurt even after a month, the reddish scars still prominent. Koos asked if he was going to eat his meat, and Krueler said “no” and passed his tin plate. Finally, completely exhausted Krueler lay down and tried to sleep. He was out for the rest of the night.²²¹

The next morning saw the British again open up with their artillery while the infantry attempted to advance under the cover of its protective fire. Krueler and Ley joined the men still alive in their old position. It felt empty without Paul. Suddenly they saw a group of fifty British cavalrymen charging towards them.

“Ready to fire on my order,” someone shouted, and the Boers held their fire. The British riders came closer and closer, and then the word “fire” was given. Over a hundred Mausers fired, and all of the British soldiers and most of the horses fell to the ground between 150 and 200 yards short of their position. Krueler remarked decades later: “That was possibly the bravest and also the most foolish thing I had ever seen.”²²²

The dead men were Colonel O.C. Hannay and his volunteers. These men had been ordered to assault the Boer defenses head on, and they decided to die on their own terms following Kitchener’s order, perhaps hoping to make a statement to the others with their sacrifice. The living retreated leaving the dead and wounded behind.²²³

Later Piet and Koos found Paul’s body, stacked with others who had been killed. To prevent disease Cronje ordered some trenches to be used as graves, and Piet assisted placing the dead into them. Paul was one of the first. Young Piet took out his map and marked the spot, using his pace count from the riverbank. He knew that his mother would want him buried at the family farm in Transvaal later. His great worry at that time was her fate as well as the rest of his family. In between burial details, the British artillery fire kept coming in, sporadically at first. Few of the rounds inflicted much human damage, but the animals and wagons were being systematically destroyed.224

Later that day the Boers witnessed perhaps the most intense barrage since the start of the battle. The advancing infantry walked over their own dead, the bodies lying in the sun from the previous days’ failed assaults. Clouds of black flies swarmed over the corpses, the wind carrying the stench into the Boer encampment. Again, the Boers fired into the attacking infantry, felling men as fast as they could chamber another round. Piet was no exception, and he killed more men. Koos claimed eight kills.²²⁵

The war was now a personal struggle for them both, as it was for most of the Boers. Krueler was amazed at how many British dead had accumulated since he had been with De Wet: “I remembered thinking that the British soldiers coming towards us could almost walk upon their own dead for their entire march through our fire, and never touch the blood soaked soil. The backs and chests of their comrades would have kept them above ground.”²²⁶

On Monday morning, February 19, 1900, Piet Cronje assessed his position. He must have known that his small force could not hold out against the British any longer. The following days saw both sides assess their situations; the British had won and the Boer commander knew it. He had lost the majority of his horses, all the covered wagons, and an estimated 100 dead and 250 wounded out of his original 4,000 plus commandos.²²⁷

De Wet had been moderately successful, and Steyn’s contribution was also noteworthy. They had captured several small hills, prisoners and guns, and the southeast ridge was taken with only three hundred men against the fifteen-thousand-strong British force in the region. Kitchener was unable to get rid of them, even with artillery.²²⁸ As night fell, Cronje called Pieter Krueler to him again. A message had been received from the British, the contents of which remain unknown to this day, which Cronje had rejected. This was the first of several attempted parlays between Roberts and Cronje.²²⁹ Krueler was to take a truce offer to the British in order for both sides to bury their dead. Once the note was written Krueler mounted his horse, a white flag tied to the barrel of his Mauser.²³⁰

He entered the British ranks just six hundred yards away and delivered the message. Krueler looked at the British soldiers and officers, who looked back at him with even more curiosity. An hour later, a solder came to him and handed him a reply note. Without reading it he rode back, worrying that he might be shot in the back as he did so. Cronje received him and read the note, and then after a few minutes of silence wrote his own response, which is preserved to this day: “If you are so uncharitable as to refuse me a truce as requested, then you may do as you please. I shall not surrender alive. Therefore bombard as you please.”231

Piet took the second message from Cronje under a flag of truce without knowing the contents at that time. Upon delivering the message, he was again handed a written response, and then he took his leave. Cronje read the newest message silently, and then gave Krueler another message to deliver to De Wet, knowing the danger, but also hearing the news of the roving commando leader’s successes that day.

The next morning Krueler rode to De Wet, handed him the message at what had formerly been Kitchener’s Kopje, the former British HQ now in De Wet’s hands.²³² However, after three days of bombardment De Wet, who had been using his cavalry as a scouting party, knew that it was over. He knew he could possibly get out, but at what cost and purpose? It mattered little, since the newly arrived Canadian contingent with the Royal Engineers had also dug in solidly to prevent any escape by foot. They were going nowhere, and no one else was coming in to aid the Boers.

Several days passed as Boer and British alike collected their dead, assessed the damage, and the negotiations went forward until Tuesday, February 27, when the Canadians finally advanced to accept the capitulation. The battle was over, and the Boers were finished. The British had suffered 24 officers and 279 enlisted men killed, 59 officers and 847 men wounded, with 2 officers and 59 men missing.²³³ The surviving Boers from the Transvaal and Orange Free State (according to Pakenham 4,069, which is supported by Holt; Fremont-Barnes claims 4,105), including 150 wounded commandos and 50 surviving women, and an undisclosed number of teenaged boys, surrendered to the British and Lord Roberts. They laid down their arms and marched off into captivity.²³⁴ Pieter Krueler and Koos Ley were among them, and for them the fighting was over, for a while at least.

The British soldiers collected all the weapons and took the names of all the prisoners. Each person, including Pieter Krueler, was interrogated lightly. A British captain spoke to him, and upon learning his age made sure that he was treated as a child should be, and placed into the care of a family for the journey. Koos Ley was less fortunate, and the two friends were separated. The group was segregated into four columns: Boer fighters and the wounded in three groups, women and children in the other. After two days of sorting out the arrangement, they began the long march.235

The news of Cronje’s capture was sent to Buller from Roberts by telegram, as the British were still trying to cross the Tugela River.²³⁶ There would be two more years of war for those Boers still in the field. For those who survived in captivity, the hell of the concentration camp was just beginning. Disease was prevalent, with many suffering from typhoid or the lingering after-effects of the disease, as was the ever-present dysentery. As the prisoners lined up in the four columns for the long walk, their greatest fear was cholera.

Where they were going they had no idea, but the rumor was the Orange Free State. Within two weeks, after a hardship march in which many died, they reached their destination: the concentration laager at the newly captured town of Bloemfontein. Cronje and his wife spent the remainder of the war in captivity on the island of St. Helena, the former site of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte.²³⁷

Peter Holt, in his Military History magazine article, explained just how the technology of war had, in just the couple of years of the Boer War, overtaken the laager method of warfare so favored by the Boers:

The Boer War proved that the laager’s usefulness as a defensive weapon had reached its end. Heavily laden, Cronje’s train was too slow and vulnerable to escape the British army. Once the wagon train was overtaken, modern weaponry pounded the Boers’ static position, strong though it was, ultimately forcing them to surrender. The Battle of Paardeberg demonstrated a critical lesson. While Cronje could not discard the past and insisted upon keeping his laager intact at all costs, Christiaan De Wet and the younger Boers favored more mobile tactics and therefore escaped the British encirclement.²³⁸

Paardeberg was perhaps the one battle that forced the British to review their competence in the field regarding leadership. As Holt wrote, “In spite of the British army’s ultimate victory, both Roberts’s and Kitchener’s conduct of the Battle of Paardeberg has remained the subject of considerable controversy. The irony of the argument is that during the siege the British soldiers drank polluted water from the Modder River, which caused them much sickness and death—far greater, in fact, than the casualties suffered during the fighting.”239

Perhaps more ironic than the British blunders being overshadowed by Cronje’s mistakes, was the fact that Kitchener, despite his gross errors in judgment, would later become a field marshal, giving him the rank and official capacity to make command decisions that would later kill far more British and Allied soldiers in the next war to come.