12 MAY 1900 - MAFEKING (ELOFF’S ATTACK)

[archie777]

Boers’ attack, 12 May 1900. The enemy determined to make a final attempt to capture the town before the relief column could come up. “At 4 am, they opened a very heavy long-range musketry fire on the town from the east, north-east, and south-east.

 

I therefore wired to the southwest outposts to be on the outlook”.
The Colonel’s judgment was, as usual, correct. “At about 4.30 some 300 Boers made a rush through the western outposts and got into the stadt; this they then set fire to. I ordered the western defenders to close in so as to prevent any supports coming in after the leading body and sent the reserve squadron there to assist.

 

They succeeded in driving off an attack of about 500 without difficulty”. The upshot was that those who got in got divided into three parties.

 

“The first surrendered, the second was driven out with loss by three squadrons Protectorate Regiment under Major Godley, and the third, in the BSA Police fort, after a vain attempt to break out in the evening, surrendered. We captured this day 108 prisoners, among whom was Commandant Eloff, Kruger’s grandson. 

We also found 10 killed and 19 wounded Boers, and their ambulance picked up 30 men killed and wounded. 
Our losses were 4 killed, 10 wounded, including Captain Singleton and Lieutenant Bridges. 

Our men, although weak with want of food and exercise, worked with splendid pluck and energy for the fourteen hours of fighting, and instances of gallantry in action were very numerous”. 
Stirling in “The Colonials in South Africa”.

Artilleris D.A. Oberholzer 
David Andries Oberholzer joined the ZAR State Artillery in 1898 (Ledger Number 928) and was in action at the first battle of the Boer War (Kraaipan, 12 October 1899), Ramoutsa and the Tuli Block on the ZAR north-western boundary.

He was one of some 200 men under Commandant Sarel Eloff, a grandson of President Kruger, who, on 12 May 1900, made a last desperate attempt to take Mafeking. They succeeded in penetrating the outer defences of the town and captured the fort in which Colonel Hore had his headquarters.

 

However, they did not have backup and support from General Snyman and, although half of the men escaped, Eloff and 109 officers and men had to surrender. That night Eloff was invited to dinner with Baden-Powell!

The Official PoW list makes for some interesting reading. It contains names such as Capt Victor Albert Du Framond (French Army), Lieut Carlo Bruno (Italian Navy), Lieut Friedrich Reichard (German) and 
Burghers Antonin Francisco (Oporto, Portugal), Alfred Giradet (Berne, Switzerland), Barend Gyswyt (Leeuwarden, Holland) and Maurice Le Gall (Paris, France).

All the men taken prisoner were sent to St Helena.

Edited May 31 by archie777