404 Bot Attack on My Website (DDoS of Sorts)
Okay so after much searching, experimentation and head banging I have finally mitigated the attack.
The solution was to install the apache module 'mod_evasive' see:
So for any other poor soul that gets slammed as severally as I did have a look at that and get your thresholds finely tuned. This is a simple, cheap and very effective means of drastically downplaying any attack similar to the one I suffered.
My server is still getting bombarded by bots but this really does limit their damage.