The POW Love Letter of Winston Churchill, Written from Prison in South Africa During the Boer War to His First Love, Pamela Plowden: "I think often of you. Yours, always, Winston S. Churchill" (In it, he predicts wrongly that he would be released, and shows an uncommon affection rarely seen in his letters)

Winston Churchill

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In battle and imprisonment, she is on his mind: "I write you this line to tell you that among new and vivid scenes I think often of you. Yours, always, Winston S. Churchill."?We could find only three letters as a POW having come to marketIn 1880, Britain annexed the Transvaal in Southern Africa, a land populated mainly by descendants of Dutch immigrants known as Boers. This led to the First Boer War, a war that, to the shock of the British people, ended in Britain?s defeat. Although, as a condition of the peace agreement, Britain agreed to respect the independence of the Boer republics, the discovery of gold and diamond deposits on Boer lands resulted in Britain again pressing in on the Transvaal, amassing troops at its borders, and claiming large swaths of new territory that effectively cut the Boer republics off from the sea. Having had enough, the Boers issued an ultimatum in October 1899 that the British disdainfully ignored. The Second Boer War was on. Unlike the British, the Boers knew the South African terrain inside and out, and chose to adopt guerrilla warfare rather than use standard military tactics like the British. Over seemingly impossible terrain, Boer soldiers could strike and then vanish without a trace. Even when under attack, the British could rarely find the enemy.24-year old Winston Churchill was a correspondent for the Morning Post newspaper, and he managed to secure a desirable assignment to report on the war for that paper. He immediately set out for the war zone and arrived in Cape Town late on October 30, 1899. He did everything in his power to reach the front, striking out on his own, taking the last train out of Cape Town to make it through enemy territory, then catching a ride aboard a mail train out of Durban. When he finally reached the British colony of Natal, he learned that Ladysmith, a garrison town that was the front for the war, was already under siege. No one could get out or in. The only way he could even get close to the front was by boarding an armored train sent out for reconnaissance every day.The trains were designed with heavy armor and carriages in front to protect the engines, but as Churchill later wrote, ?Nothing looks more formidable and impressive than an armoured train, but nothing is in fact more vulnerable and helpless.? The trains were fixed and irresistible targets, and the Boers had to do little more than sit and wait for their prey to come to them. Already they had successfully attacked two British trains. Yet on the morning of November 15, 1899, Churchill took one of these trains, thinking it was better than watching the war play out from a distance. He cared little about personal danger, and was never one to sit on the sidelines. But not only had the Boers been closely watching the train as it made its way along the tracks that morning, but it was a regiment led by the youngest, most charismatic general in the Boer army?Louis Botha (who would become the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa). As soon as the train had passed them, moving slowly north, Botha and his men began piling large stones onto the tracks at the foot of the slope. Then, pushing their guns up the hills that flanked the rail line, they waited for the train to return.On its return, while inside Boer-occupied territory near Chieveley, Boer forces ambushed the train, derailing it. The train crashed into the boulders with a mighty impact, and the Boers opened up with field guns and rifle fire. Churchill helped organize the clearing of the track and evacuation of wounded men during the ambush, displaying bravery under fire. The British soldiers did their best to get their injured and wounded colleagues out of harm?s way. They then tried to uncouple the locomotive so that it could back off down the line to safety. After some 70 minutes of action the Boers swept down the hillside. A number of men were taken prisoner, but the locomotive, loaded with men, managed to escape. However, Churchill was.

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• Titre: The POW Love Letter of Winston Churchill, Written from Prison in South Africa During the Boer War to His First Love, Pamela Plowden: "I think often of you. Yours, always, Winston S. Churchill" (In it, he predicts wrongly that he would be released, and shows an uncommon affection rarely seen in his letters)