The First Shots – Kraaipan
On the twelfth of October, eighteen ninety-nine, the Second Boer War began.
Not with a great battle or a dramatic cavalry charge, but beside a lonely stretch of railway south of Mafeking. There, at a place called Kraaipan, Boer commandos tore up the tracks and waited in the darkness for an armoured train carrying British troops and supplies.
Within hours, the first shots of the war had been fired. The first prisoners had been taken. And any hope of a peaceful settlement had vanished forever.
In this episode, we examine the opening clash of the conflict that would reshape South Africa and shock the British Empire. We follow the commandos as they strike the railway, explore the strategic importance of Mafeking, and uncover how a seemingly minor skirmish became the spark that ignited one of the most fascinating wars in modern history.
Every war has a beginning.
This is where the Boer War started.
