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Historical person

Christiaan de Wet

1854–1922

Christiaan de Wet was a Boer general and politician who became one of the most effective commanders of the Orange Free State during the Second Boer War. After the conventional Boer armies suffered major defeats, he led highly mobile guerrilla operations against British forces, repeatedly evading attempts to capture him and becoming a symbol of continued republican resistance.

De Wet repeatedly evaded larger British columns, disrupted communications and prolonged resistance after the occupation of the Boer capitals. His campaigns made him one of the conflict’s best-known commanders and a symbol of Boer military resilience.

Thomas Pakenham’s The Boer War then traces the British advance under Frederick Roberts and Herbert Kitchener, the occupation of the Boer capitals and the prolonged guerrilla war led by commanders including Louis Botha, Christiaan de Wet and Jan Smuts. In Max Hennessy’s Sunset at Sheba, A battle to decide their fate. South Africa, 1914. Diehard Boer generals led a new rebellion against the British-friendly governments of both Jan Smuts and Louis Botha. General Christiaan De Wet's attempt to join up with the Germans in South-West Africa failed, but the threat of the rebel forces was real to all of the men who lived through it. John Wilcox’s Fire Across the Veldt uses Christiaan de Wet as the elusive Boer commander whose mobile guerrilla campaign repeatedly frustrates British attempts to locate and trap his forces.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Christiaan de Wet (2 series)

Simon Fonthill in Order

by John Wilcox 13 books 4.2(4,074)

The Simon Fonthill series follows an unconventional British officer and intelligence scout through the wars and crises of the late Victorian and Edwardian empire. Beginning in southern Africa in 1879, Simon Fonthill and his Welsh comrade ‘352’ Jenkins move from regular army service into scouting, diplomacy and irregular…

All books in this series

Boer War Duology in Order

by Max Hennessy 2 books 3.8(913)

The Boer War Duology brings together two South African military adventures separated by more than a decade. The Fleeing Tiger follows the aftermath of the Second Boer War through a stolen army payroll and a prolonged pursuit, while Sunset at Sheba moves to the Boer rebellion of 1914…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Christiaan de Wet (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.