Forums

• Patron - £25.00/year

See all Subscription Plans

• 
  27 AUGUST 1900 - BERG-EN-DAL / DALMANUTHA

  By archie777 · Posted 4 minutes ago

  “On the 27th, French advanced 8 miles further north, and drove the enemy from Swartz Kopjes. From this position he threatened the enemy’s line of retreat, although he could hardly yet be said to have turned their right flank.   Meanwhile, however, General Buller was able to take more decisive action at the other extremity of the Boer line of defence. At Bergendal, 3 miles south-east of Belfast, the Boers had established a very strong position on a low rocky kopje, and in some farm buildings and plantations, which formed the key to that portion of the main position.   The kopje was heavily entrenched and was garrisoned by the Z.A.R. Police with a pom-pom. The ground, which sloped gently away in all directions, afforded no cover.” Roberts’ Despatch of 10 October 1900, published in the LG of 8 Feb 1901, p867.   The British bombardment began shortly before 11 am and the shelling continued for three hours without intermission.   From the Times History: “no such severe and concentrated fire having been witnessed during the war since the days of Vaal Krantz and Pieter’s Hill. The top and all sides of the platform were swept by a hail of shrapnel, while the rocks themselves were torn and rent by the explosion of the lyddite shells. Smoke and sulphurous gases and rocks shooting up in the air made the place look like a Vesuvius in eruption.   But the police lay close behind the rocks. For, in spite of the accuracy of the fire, the trenches were so good that its material results were almost nothing”.   Early afternoon the British infantry assault began. Again, quoting from the Times History: “...the Riflemen swept onward towards the position regardless of their losses. Two captains, Lysley and Steward, and the adjutant, Maitland, fell; three other officers and seventy-five riflemen, dropping in their tracks, testified to the steadiness and marksmanship of the hard-fighting Zarp’s and Metcalfe himself fell severely wounded.   The Zarps went on coolly firing till within the last five minutes, then, most of the survivors rushed to their horses in the kraal and galloped away… they found and took prisoner the brave commandant, Philip Oosthuizen, who was severely wounded. Lieutenant Pohlman was killed, and some forty others of the seventy-four were killed, wounded or captured… The pom-pom was also captured; the Maxim had already been blown to atoms by a shell”. Casper Hendrik du Plessis held the rank of Sergeant in the elite ZAR Police unit. His initial service was in Natal (Colenso and Ladysmith), followed by Abrahamskraal (Driefontein). At Dalmanutha he was one of 74 ZARPs who were entrenched among the rocks on the Bergendal Koppie and were subjected to the fire of Buller’s thirty-eight guns. Miraculously, the 27-year old Du Plessis was neither wounded nor killed but was taken prisoner and sent to St Helena as PoW No12217.    
• 
  27 AUGUST 1900 - WINBURG

  By archie777 · Posted 17 minutes ago

  Next day (27 August) Olivier attacked the town from the north, north-east and north-west, but was repulsed on every side, losing twenty-five of his men by capture. Finally, he himself with his three sons rode into a trap set by the Queenstown Volunteers, from which he emerged a prisoner of war.  “Official History” Vol III, p334.   DCM (VR): Pte. W.M. Sladdin, Queenstown Volunteers; QSA, 2 clasps CC, Witt: Pte. W.M. Sladdin, Queenstown R.V. Tpr Sladdin was mentioned in despatches (LG 16 April 1901, p2611) and was awarded the DCM in the LG of 19 April 1901, p2709.   He served with the Queenstown Rifle Volunteers until 21 March 1901.    According to the QSA roll he received his medal on 13 January 1902 and the Cape Colony & Wittebergen clasps on 21 February 1902. There is no record of entitlement to a SA 1901 clasp. ABO: Veldkornet J.J. Swanepoel “At dawn of 26 August all were awakened by the rattle of rifles and the boom of guns. Olivier and his men were audaciously attempting to rush the town. After two hours’ heavy firing the Boers were repulsed and the mounted men among the British were ordered to follow them up.   The Queenstown Volunteers pressed close on the enemy’s extreme left. Sladdin, whose modest and interesting narrative of these events we have followed, with seven others found himself, in the heat of the chase a long way in advance of the British and right in the midst of the enemy.   Reaching a small eminence, this little band halted there, when one after other burghers rode up to them, taking them for Boers, and were compelled by their levelled rifles to surrender. “Among the first we took,” says Sladdin, “were General Olivier and his three sons. We had captured 24 prisoners by now and they were being taken over the eminence to a kraal on the other side, where they were dismounted and sent on on foot. I was riding up in the rear, when I turned around and saw another man coming towards me.   I rode towards him and ordered him to give up his gun. He said he was damned if he would. He had his rifle loaded but was uncertain whether to fire or not. The instant I saw him hesitate he was lost, for I was only a couple of yards from him, and I dug the spurs into my horse, bounded on to him, and caught the muzzle of his rifle in my hand. At the same time, I called to one of our fellows to shoot him. On hearing this he gave me his gun.”   He proved to be Field Cornet Swanepoel, a well-known Boer leader. As soon as he had been secured, the captors returned to the summit of the kopje, and were startled to see 200 Boers galloping towards them.   There were now only five of the British left, as two messengers had been despatched to beg assistance. But these five put on a bold face and opened a hot magazine fire. The Boers were so surprised at this unexpected shower of bullets that they bolted incontinently. Three were killed, the rest made good their escape.   As for the Queenstown Volunteers, they brought their prisoners back in safety to the British lines, and were received as heroes.” “After Pretoria: The Guerilla War” p152-3   Jacobus Johannes Swanepoel served in the Rouxville Commando under Gen J H Olivier.    When completing his Vorm “B” medal application, he listed 15 engagements in which he had participated. These included Stormberg, Wepener, Waterwerk (Sannas Post), Mostertshoek, Rooiwal, Retiefsnek and Lindley. He was taken prisoner by Pte Sladdin and sent to Ceylon as PoW No 11613.
• 
  24-26 AUGUST 1900 - HELPMEKAAR

  By archie777 · Posted 43 minutes ago

  “On August 24th reports were received that Olivier, with 1000 men and two guns had suddenly appeared north of Winburg and had surrounded a British force about nine miles from that town.   This party, which consisted of 190 mounted men and thirty infantry, was under the command of Lieut.-Col Ridley (16th battalion I.Y.), who had been sent out by Major-General Allen on reconnaissance towards Ventersburg. Bruce Hamilton was immediately ordered to proceed to his aid… and succeeded in extricating him at 9am on the 26th.   The relief came only just in time. For two days and three nights Ridley’s men had withstood, almost without cover, shrapnel and common shell from three guns and the unceasing fire of a thousand rifles. Twice they had been summoned to surrender; but surrounded though they were by vastly superior numbers they held out with deter-mination, losing thirty-two officers and men.” “Official History” Vol III, p333. “…what a sight met our gaze. I shall never forget it. 100 ponies had been shot dead; some were piled up to form a breastwork for the Queenstown fellows. Five men were killed and 21 wounded, their Maxim gun was smashed to pieces and only 30 rounds of rifle ammunition remained to them” “The Boer War Diaries of No 18405 Bombardier Walter Mitton” p53.
• 
  21-26 AUGUST 1900 - VAN WYKSVLEI - BELFAST

  By archie777 · Posted 53 minutes ago

  About three miles east of Van Wyk’s Vlei, where the country begins to dip in a succession of ledges to the valley of the Komati, Privates Evans and Bee, who were leading men of a patrol of Lieut. Field’s  troop, came suddenly on a number of Boers who were artfully concealed near a farm.   The Boers opened fire, hit both Privates Evans and Bee, and captured Private Bee and the horses, but Evans, seeing that the Boers were lying in wait at this spot, where the ground kept dropping so sharply that their presence could not be detected, and that part of a company of the Gordon Highlanders were rapidly advancing into the same trap as he had fallen into, managed, in spite of his wound, to wave his helmet and shout to the Gordons, preventing them advancing to probably the same fate as he had met. Lieut. Field, seeing that his patrol had got into a tight place, went forward to their aid, and finding Evans severely wounded, endeavoured to get him away out of fire, but in doing so he was hit himself in the shoulder, and had difficulty in crawling away under the heavy fire he had provoked.  This resulted in the following memo from his Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel E.C. Knox, to the Brigade Major, 2nd Cavalry Brigade: “I forward herewith a statement from Lieut. And Adjutant Shee, 19th Hussars, concerning No. 4480 Private Albert Evans, of the Regiment under my command.   Private Evans was employed as a scout yesterday in front of his Squadron “C” and was wounded severely while reconnoitring near a farm. I have the honour to request that you will bring the conduct and behaviour of this man to the notice of the General Officer Commanding for favourable consideration.” Lieut. Shee’s statement read:  “With reference to your memorandum of today, asking me to give the particulars in the case of Private Evans, 18th Hussars, I have the honour to state that yesterday afternoon, the 21st of August, I was walking across the plateau above the farm, two miles east of this camp, and met a company of Gordon Highlanders advancing to the edge of the ridge overlooking the farm.   About 500 yards off, on the left flank of the Gordons, a man was waving his helmet whilst lying on the ground, and the officer commanding the party asked me to find out what he wanted, and I did so. I found the man to be a Private of the 18th Hussars, who was wounded in two places.   He told me that he had waved his helmet in order to attract attention, and let the Gordons know that the enemy were holding the farm (about 400 yards from the ridge), and that if they, the Gordons, advanced to the edge they would show up against the sky line with no cover. I galloped back and told the officer of the Gordons before mentioned, whose name I do not know, and then went back and brought Private Evans into the doctor.   He informed me on the way that one of his patrol had been killed close to the farm, and that he had crawled away over the ridge and lay there until the Gordons advanced.” The 18th Hussars in South Africa, p102-3.   Although Lieut. Field was subsequently Mentioned in Despatches, Private Evans did not receive any form of recognition for his gallant act.
• 
  21-26 AUGUST 1900 - VAN WYKSVLEI - BELFAST

  By archie777 · Posted 1 hour ago

  “As soon as the troops engaged in the pursuit of De Wet became available for operations elsewhere, I redistributed the field army with the object, first, of advancing along the Delagoa Bay Railway to Komati Poort, and, secondly, of forming flying columns… the military situation was as follows:  On l0th August, Sir Redvers Buller’s forces reached Twyfelaar. French was in command at Middelburg. On the 18th August, the Mounted Infantry were holding the line stretching from Wonderfontein to Doornkop, 12 miles north of Middelburg, and French’s Cavalry was distributed between Wonderfontein and Twyfelaar.  On that date French rejoined his two Cavalry brigades. On the 21st, Buller marched to Van Wyk’s Vlei, 15 miles south-east of Belfast, and two days later the 11th Division, under Pole-Carew, was concentrated at Wonderfontein.   Buller met with some opposition on the 23rd in the neighbourhood of Van Wyk’s Vlei, and towards evening two companies of the 1st Battalion Liverpool Regiment entered by mistake a hollow, out of sight of the main body, where they came under a heavy fire,  losing 10 men killed, and one Officer and 45 men wounded. The other casualties on this occasion were one man killed, and three Officers and four men wounded.  On the 24th August, I left Pretoria for Wonderfontein, and on the 25th proceeded to Belfast… occupied the previous day by the 11th Division. Some opposition was encountered, our casualties amounting to one man killed, and one officer and 14 men wounded.  As soon as I arrived, it became apparent to me that we were already in touch with a part of the Boer main position. This position, extended from the neighbourhood of Swartz Kopjes on the north to Dalmanutha on the south, a distance of some 20 miles. It was furnished with numerous artillery… and was entrenched at various points of importance. My first idea was to hold the enemy in front with the 11th Division, whilst Buller and French turned their loft from the south.   On consultation, however, with General Buller, it seemed that the ground was not favourable to a turning movement from this quarter, and I therefore decided to contain the enemy’s front by the 18th Brigade and turn his right flank with the Guards Brigade, assisted by General French and Colonel Henry’s Mounted Infantry. With this object French moved, on the 26th, from Geluk, 12 miles south of Belfast, and passing to the west of the town reached Lakenvlei, 6 miles to its north on the evening of this day. Pole-Carew, with the 11th Division, endeavoured to advance along the Lydenburg road in his support but came under so heavy a shell and rifle fire that he made but little progress.   Buller, whose Artillery was engaged throughout the day, pushed back the Boers, who were holding a series of strong positions to the south-east of Belfast, to within 4 miles of the railway between that town and Dalmanutha.  Our casualties on this date amounted to five men killed, and two Officers and 56 men wounded.”  Roberts’ Despatch of 10 October 1900, published in the LG of 8 Feb 1901, p867.   DCM (EVII): 4572 Pte. J. Trainor. Liverpool Regt.  On 21 August, during the operations near Van Wyk’s Vlei, Corporal Knight, Liverpool Regt., was posted in some rocks with four men, covering the right rear of a detachment of the same company, who, under Captain Ewart, were holding the right of the line. The enemy, about 50 strong, attacked Captain Ewart’s right and almost surrounded Corporal Knight’s small party.   This NCO held his ground, directing his party to retire one by one to better cover, where he maintained his position for nearly an hour, covering the withdrawal of Captain Ewart’s force and losing two of his four men. He then retired bringing with him two wounded men; one of these he left in a place of safety, the other he carried for nearly two miles. The party were hotly engaged the whole time. For his gallantry on this occasion Knight was rewarded by the Victoria Cross. 4572 Pte. J. Traynor and 5360 Pte J McNamara were in Cpl. Knight’s party and were both awarded the DCM for the part they played in this VC action.   All published accounts (Regimental History and London Gazette) as well as the DCM Issue Register incorrectly refer to No 4572 as Trainor, hence spelling of surname on the DCM. Traynor was also awarded a 3-clasp QSA and a 2-clasp KSA. DCM Provenance: H Y Usher Collection.