On Commando

Van Warmelo, Dietlof, 1872-1966Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 187K words
Chapters: 19

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.On Commando by Dietlof Van WarmeloAuthor: Van Warmelo, Dietlof, 1872-1966,Language: English, Class: DT: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Africa, Release Date: Feb 24, 2005

Editor's review

This is the memoir of Dietlof van Warmelo, a participant in the South African Boer War, recounting in the first person his combat experiences and daily observations as a Boer commando. As a free Project Gutenberg e-book, it preserves the readability and historical value of the original text; readers can observe guerrilla conditions, marching life, and details of colonial conflict from the perspective of an ordinary combatant. The prose bears the marks of its era and personal emotion, and is not a modern historical study; it is better read as a primary source alongside other accounts. Readers are advised to consult background material on South African history, remain mindful of the author's stance and the subjectivity of the narrative, and treat the book as a window into colonial warfare experience in the early twentieth century rather than a comprehensive war history. It suits readers interested in military history, colonial history, and the memoir genre, to be read and annotated on an e-reader with maps and a timeline at hand.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Military-history readers interested in the Boer War and modern South African history
Readers who enjoy first-person war memoirs and eyewitness narratives
Students needing English-language primary sources for coursework or writing
Commuters who read public-domain foreign-language e-books on electronic devices

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking systematic war history with scholarly annotation
Beginners sensitive to colonial-era narrative stances who need a critical introduction
Casual readers who prefer light stories or contemporary fiction

Reading tips

Look up a Boer War timeline and geographical background first, then read the main text, marking place names and events as you go.
Compare the author's account with later historical scholarship, noting subjective tendencies and the limitations of the source.
Read in sections; after each chapter, summarize the marching and fighting in three to five sentences.
Use a dictionary alongside the English original, paying attention to military and colonial-era usage.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for someone with no background in the Boer War?

As a participant's memoir, it offers vivid detail but is not designed to explain the war as a whole. Readers starting from zero should first read a brief war history or encyclopedia entry to establish a timeline and the main figures, then treat this book as a supplementary perspective; otherwise they may be overwhelmed by names, places, and local events.

What should readers keep in mind about the Project Gutenberg edition?

This is a free electronic text, set mainly in plain text, and may lack modern annotation, maps, and an introduction. Readers need to supply background material themselves and note that the public-domain text retains the language and expressions of its time; a dictionary and mapping tools can help with unfamiliar place names or military terms.

Should readers pay special attention to the book's narrative stance?

Yes. The author writes as a Boer commando, with personal feelings and the stance of his era, and his descriptions of both sides are not necessarily neutral. Readers should read critically, treating the book as a source reflecting one side's perspective and cross-checking it against other materials rather than accepting it as a comprehensive, objective verdict on the war.

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About the author

Van Warmelo, Dietlof, 1872-1966 Author · 1872–1966

Dietlof van Warmelo (1872–1966) is an author about whose life very little is publicly known. His nationality, education and professional career are not clearly documented. What can be confirmed is that he left one work, On Commando, a memoir-like wartime narrative based on his own experience as a combatant during the Boer War. The book focuses on personal observations and impressions from the field, written in a plain and direct style, and offers first-hand material for later generations seeking to understand the experience of ordinary participants in that war. Because surviving records are scattered, his other writings and public activities remain to be further investigated, and readers and researchers chiefly know him through this single work.