Deneys Reitz (1882—1944) was a Boer Commando, South African soldier and politician. 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Boer is the Afrikaans (and Dutch) word for farmer. ...

While still in his teens, Deneys Reitz served in the Boer forces during the Second Boer War. As a commando he fought in both the fist conventional phase of the war and the second guerrilla phase. In the latter he accompanied Jan Smuts on raids deep into the Cape Province, he continued to fight to the "bitter end", and then went to live in Madagascar rather than sign the undertaking which every Boer soldier was called upon to sign, that he would abide by the peace terms. Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War There were two Boer wars, one in 1880-81 and the second from October 11, 1899-1902 both between the British and the settlers of Dutch origin (called Boere, Afrikaners or Voortrekkers) in South Africa that put an end to the two independent... Jan Smuts Jan Christiaan Smuts, (May 24, 1870 – September 11, 1950) was a prominent South African statesman and soldier. ... Under the Union of South Africa and after that under the Republic of South Africa, the old Cape Colony became the Cape of Good Hope Province (though it was commonly known as the Cape Province). ...

While in exile in Madagascar he wrote about his experience of the Boer War, so that, when it was eventually edited and published in 1929 as Commando: A Boer Journal Of The Boer War, it still had the freshness and detail of an account written soon after the war. Not only is the account very well written and an important source for the Second Boer War. His family connections (his father was State Secretary of the Transvaal) and sheer luck provides for a unique account because he was present at virtually every major event of the war. For instance, while visiting his father at the start of the war and being too young to fight, the President of the Transvaal Paul Kruger spoke to him and gave him special permission to do so; subsequently the commandant-general Piet Joubert personally issued him with a new Mauser carbine and a bandolier of ammunition. 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Flag of Transvaal The Transvaal (lit. ... Paul Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paul Kruger (10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904), fondly known as Oom Paul (Afrikaans for Uncle Paul), was a prominent Boer resistance leader against British rule and president of the Transvaal Republic in South Africa. ... Mauser is the common name of German arms manufacturer Mauser-Werke Oberndorf Waffensysteme GmbH, as well as the line of bolt action rifles they built for the German armed forces. ...

On the advice of his wartime commander, Jan Smuts, he returned to South Africa in 1906. The malaria he had fought with in Madagascar had so severely affected his health that he collapsed unconcious upon his reuturn to South Africa. He was nursed back to health over three years by Jan Smuts and his wife, Isie. He then returned to public life. In 1914 he helped Smuts suppress the Maritz Rebellion in the Free State, and he served on Smuts' army staff in the "German West campaign" (in the German colony of South-West Africa) and in the "the German East campaign" (in German East Africa) where he rose to command a mounted regiment. On the Western Front during World War I he commanded the First Royal Scots Fusiliers until he was severely wounded early in 1918. He returned to active service to lead his men to the Rhine after the Armistice. He continued in public life as a Member of Parliament, Cabinet Minister, Deputy Prime Minister (1939-1943), and South African High Commissioner (1944) to London. Jan Smuts Jan Christiaan Smuts, (May 24, 1870 – September 11, 1950) was a prominent South African statesman and soldier. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Maritz Rebellion or the Boer Revolt or the Five Shilling Rebellion1, occurred in South Africa in 1914 at the start of World War I, in which men who supported the recreation of the old Boer republics rose up against the government of the Union of South Africa. ... Capital Bloemfontein Largest city Bloemfontein Area  - Total Ranked 3rd 129,480 km² Premier Beatrice Marshoff (ANC) Population   - 2001   - 1996   - Density Ranked 8th 2,706,776 2,633,504 21/km² (2001) Languages Sotho (62%) Afrikaans (14%) isiXhosa (9. ... Flag of German South West Africa German South-West Africa (German: Deutsch-S dwestafrika or DSWA) was a colony of Germany from 1884 to 1915, when it was taken over by South Africa and administered as South-West Africa, later becoming Namibia. ... German East Africa was Germanys colony in East Africa, including what is now Burundi, Rwanda, and the mainland part of Tanzania. ... For most of World War I, Allied Forces, predominantly those of France and the United Kingdom, were stalled at trenches on the Western Front. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... The Royal Scots Fusiliers is a Regiment of the British army. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1,320 km Elevation of the source Vorderrhein: approx. ... An armistice is the effective end of a war, when the warring parties agree to stop fighting. ...

Published works

Three volumes of an autobiography

• "Commando: A Boer Journal Of The Boer War", first published in Great Brittain in 1929, ISBN 0571087787
• "Trekking On", dealing with the Boer War through World War I, and
• "No Outspan", which covers life in South African politics between the wars and concludes with him as Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa.

Also published in one volume:

• "The Trilogy of Deneys Reitz", by Deneys Reitz, Wolfe Publishing Co., 1994 (Reprint), ISBN 1-879356-39-2