But We Got the Gun! by Robin Smith
Quite soon after the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War in October 1899, Ladysmith was surrounded and besieged by Boer forces from the Transvaal and Orange Free State. For a time, there was very little action as the Boers sat down in their laagers around the dusty little town, resolving to bombard the British garrison into submission with their heavy guns. The British soldiers and the townsfolk waited for relief by General Redvers Buller's Imperial forces massing to the south beyond the Tugela River. However, the tangle of hills and koppies between Ladysmith and the river was a formidable barrier and relief was nearly three months away in December 1899.The garrison, in spite of its commander, Lieutenant General Sir George White, VC, taking the view that sorties outside the lines would serve no purpose, nevertheless took such initiatives on several occasions. A raid by the Colonial regiments on the night of 7th December 1899 succeeded in destroying two Boer guns on Gun Hill east of the town.British regular troops of the Rifle Brigade undertook another attack three nights later on Surprise Hill on the northern side of Ladysmith. They reached the summit undetected, skirmished with a few defenders and laid charges in the barrel of the Boer Krupp howitzer and blew it up. The Boers of the Pretoria Commando including a young man named Deneys Reitz and some friends intercepted the British soldiers as they descended the hill to return to Ladysmith. This is the story of that raid and its consequences.Professor Robin Smith is the Director of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology's (UMIST) Centre for Process Integration. Prior to joining UMIST, he worked in industry with Rohm & Haas in process analysis and design, as well as ICI in computer-aided design and process integration. He was a member of the ICI Process Integration Team, which was one of the first to use process integration design approaches in industry. He has vast experience as a consultant in process integration projects since joining UMIST. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in the United Kingdom, and a chartered engineer who has published substantially in the topic of chemical process design and integration. For his contributions in clean process technology, he received the Hanson Medal from the Institution of Chemical Engineers in the United Kingdom in 1992.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781914245862 |
| ISBN 10 | 1914245865 |
| Title | But We Got the Gun! |
| Author | Robin Smith |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | TSL Publications |
| Year published | 2022-10-04 |
| Number of pages | 112 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |