Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War Book Review

Deneys Reitz begins his journey not fully grasping the gravity of war. His enlistment with the Transvaal forces initially appears to be little more than an afterthought; on page 3 of Commando, Reitz writes that he and his brothers "did not understand the import of all this coming and going." They were simply content to continue living the "carefree life" they always knew.

As his father fell ill and the war drew nearer, Reitz was forced to consider the now "inevitable" war on the horizon (Reitz 1929, 5). As a soldier at the young age of 17, Reitz looked upon the prospect of war as little more than glory and glamour, not the "horror and misery" he would later discover (5). The attitude was simple enough: Reitz was a South African, and as a South African he would fight for his country. The greater political and philosophical implications were not given much thought.

Exposed to a constant script of night marches, dead soldiers, and the dreary nature of war, Reitz's vision of glamour on the battlefield began to shift. The transformation is evident when Reitz's friend, Zijl, is shot and killed; upon finding the perpetrators, Reitz cannot bring himself to blankly shoot the soldier, instead ordering him to wait and be captured (35). There appears to be no more straight glamour in killing and death for Reitz. Frank Roos was the next to die; then, Robert Reinecke, yet another tent-mate of Reitz.

The story of Commando is the story of Reitz's view of war. Entering the Boer War as something close to a blank slate-perhaps too young to spend considerable time contemplating the magnitude of the situation he to be involved in-Reitz's views are informed not by long-held biases or an intense hatred of the enemy, but instead by the experiences he faces on the battlefield. Reitz takes no enjoyment from the killing he experiences on the battlefield, nor does he go out of his way to inflict pain or cruelty upon the British forces he encounters. The war is absurd: soldiers killed by pure chance, soldiers saved by the same uncontrollable fortunes; mutilated bodies, hallucinations; Reitz's long-time pony run over by a friendly automobile; a British soldier Reitz shot reciprocating by taking out a picture of his wife and child and having a chat (87).

I am left with the impression that Reitz, while stung sharply by the defeat the Boer army faced at the hands of the British, is not a man who longs for war. His story is one that humanizes the Transvaal and the British forces alike, one that is not afraid to operate in shades of gray, and one that leaves much to be decided by the reader. There are no easy answers, and Reitz's experience is meant chiefly to inform our understanding of war.

As a political science major, Reitz's narrative informed my understanding of the Boer War greatly. Prior to Commando, my knowledge of the Boer War was glancing, perhaps due to the fact that it took place between two principalities not directly related to the United States. The death, the destruction, and the malicious nature of this war, however, are just as real and meaningful as any war we grow up focusing on in our school textbooks. Reitz's experience is a universal one, with understanding to impart on the character of all wars.

Reitz presents his arguments very effectively, due largely from the fact that he fails to pigeonhole any particular sect into black or white, good or evil. His war is one in which we can all imagine experiencing, and it is disarmingly human. From the injured British soldier who pulls out the picture of his wife and child to the British officers who joke about Reitz's quotation of Dickens, these are not meant to be simple portrayals. While Reitz does not with the purpose of British aggression, he himself attempts to retain his humanity throughout: he tends to wounded British soldiers, captures enemies where possible, feels kinship with the horses and mules around him, sadness for their loss, and indeed communicates a sense of sadness at all that is happening around him. It is as much about maturation and understanding as it is about the war itself, and for that reason, it will remain universal in its appeal. Reitz's Commando is, in short, a humane book about a very inhumane occurrence