9 FEBRUARY 1900 - POTFONTEIN / WEST AUSTRALIA HILL

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“Lieutenant Oosthuyzen had in the meantime not been idle and after a skirmish on 9 February, in which 3 police were killed and 6 police and 2 burghers were wounded, he advanced to a position behind the English camp at Slingersfontein from where part of the camp was within reach of artillery.

 

That night a gun was sent to him with orders to bombard the camp the next morning”.
Memoirs of Commandant G M J van Dam, Commanding Officer of the ZARP’s (ZAR Police).

 

The figures listed in the Official ZAR Casualty Returns (List 45, 13 February 1900) are at variance with Van Dam’s, viz. Police: 2 killed, 6 wounded; Burghers: 2 killed, 4 wounded. Locality: Potfontein

“A serious effort was made on the 9th against his extreme right at Slingersfontein.. The West Australians who were in action for the first time, played their part well; and a body of twenty of them, under Captain H G Moor, RA, attached to the corps, distinguished themselves by holding a kopje all day against very superior forces” “The War in South Africa” Vol II. Maurice.