h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

did the boers try and bombard a military ship form land as it rounded the cape and the ship returned fire....naval engagement.... and was the commander a capt. mainwairing... mannering made famous in the tv series dads army

"I was wondering who'd be the first to spot that, Wilson"

Stupid boy.

If the commanders claim to fame isn't military, would I be right in guessing it also had nothing to do with the Sea? Did he become a polititian?

Also was the naval battle a little closer to home, maybe off the Spanish or North African coast?

Nothing to do with the Boer War, but we've had a few interesting naval skirmishes with the Dutch over the years. Their greatest achievement was probably the daring raid by Michiel Adrianszoon de Ruyter (1607–76) in 1667. Knowing that the English fleet was laid up for lack of money (a bit like today, really), he sailed up the rivers Thames and Medway, sat in the Chatham dockyard for two days destroying ships, and then made off with the Royal Charles, the English fleet's newest ship.

I can spell Politician, I just don't like Monday mornings

A Freudian slip though

Taff, yes, we're taking about an attack on a British ship by a land-based Boer force, but don't forget that the commander we're talking about was a Boer, not an officer of the Royal Navy.

The word "bombard" somewhat overstates the scale of the attack.

And Oops, yes, he became a politician. Like Washington and Wellington before him, he went from General to political leader.

I'm betting the South African wasn't called Nelson

No. That one came later.

Risking a klaxon...was it Jan Smuts, who then went on to invent apartheid?

RF

Botha or DeClerk

No klaxon, ReadyFreddie, though it is a gross libel to say Smuts invented apartheid.

It's actually Quite Interesting.

Towards the end of the war the Boer army broke up into small groups, or commandoes, living off the land and fighting a guerilla war. To combat them, the British put the wives and children of the soldiers into concentration camps (leading to many civilian deaths) and, to keep the commandoes in a controllable area, issued an edict saying that any Boer soldiers found in the Cape would be considered spies and, if taken prisoner, would be shot.

Smuts was the only general to defy this ruling.

He and his small band rode all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, sleeping rough, stealing food and re-arming themselves by following British troops and picking up dropped bullets.

When they reached the beach, they saw a Royal Navy ship sailing by. Smuts decided to open fire on it purely for the fun of being able to say afterwards that the ware had included a naval battle. There is, presumably, a captain's log in the navy's archives describing the reactions of the navy to being fired on by a group of ragged horsemen.

Smuts's unique claim to fame can be seen on Wikipedia, so I might as well state it here: he was the only person to sign the treaties that ended both World Wars.

As far as the accusation that Smuts was the architect of apartheid, I can throw a unique light on the matter. I met an old man who had been a personal friend. According to him, Smuts was a liberal (for his time). The two men had sat one evening watching the sun go down and Smuts had told him there would inevitably be a war between Britain and Germany, and that he, as Prime Minister, would have to take South Africa into the war on the British side.

This, he predictd, would mean the end of his life's work of uniting the country, a prediction that came horribly true when, at the end of the war, he was defeated by the right-wing party that stayed in power until Nelson Mandela took over.

The story of the naval battle is told in a book called Commando by Smuts and Denys Reitz, who rode in that commando while still in his teens.

Good QI, InfiniteImp

Yes interesting story

So is the idea that he invented apartheid just another case of History being written by the winners?

Yes. And still, unfortunately, the winners. The people who were running the country before the ANC took over don't seem to have suffered much under the new regime.

well we had nelson mandela a former terrorist as a president what have we to look forward to gerry adams PM

Great question!

Scores:

Taff Agent of Kaos: +6

Oops_the_Destroyer: +6

ReadyFreddie: +3