to implement and practice, resulting in difficulty in the early stages of the First World War which somewhat undermined the experience. Perhaps the most important lesson that was learnt by the British in the Boer war was that of the empty battlefield. The Black Week saw General Buller’s casualties reach 143 killed, 755 wounded and 240 captured. 194 The inadequacy of British training was exposed when the army came up against a sophisticated enemy such as the Boers with tactics such as volley fire and favouring obedience to commands rather than initiative. 195 During the campaign as a result of Boer marksmanship and their guerrilla tactics the British began to adopt the empty battlefield policy which encouraged the use of cover to mask their position and thus reduce the risk of enemy fire. The lessons learnt from the Boers’ use of Guerrilla tactics resulted in the British adopting the tactics of concentration camps and scorched earth policies. 196 This was designed to restrict the movement of the highly mobile Boer Commandos; destroy access to supporters who could provide food; and contain the wives and children of the Boers who could be used as leverage in order to force the Boers to surrender. 197 One of the most important lessons from the land campaign during the Russo-Japanese war was that of the power of machine guns in entrenched positions. Many nations ignored the lessons that could have been learnt about the nature of machine guns and the use of entrenched positions. There were lessons also about the new nature that warfare was to take following the Russo-Japanese war, fighting on broad
194 Michael Craver. P.49 195 Denis Judd and Keith Terrance Surridge. P.63
196 Michael Craver. P.220 197 Michael Craver. P.221
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