Fifteen years before the heroic action of Canadian troops on the Somme, the Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry was engaged in its first international war - the Anglo-Boer (1899-1902) - in South Africa.

Fighting for the British Empire, it was a horrific initiation, to the devastating power of modern weapons of war, for a regiment of volunteers made of bankers, clerks, butchers, bakers and farm hands.

Seen through the eyes of the officers and men, this is the story of the part they played in one of the most important battles of the war - the Battle of Paardeberg.