19 DECEMBER 1901 - ELANDSPRUIT

[archie777]

In December 1901, when news reached Kitchener that the ZAR Government had crossed the railway into the Roos Senekal district, he sent Col Urmston from Belfast to co-operate with Col Parkin an attempt to capture the Government party.

 

The British hoped to surprise the enemy at Windhoek, west of Dullstroom, but Gen Chris Muller interposed at the right moment and attacked Col Park on the 19th at Elandspruit.

 

The Boers were repulsed after several hours fighting, in which the British had 37 casualties and the Boers 25. The ZAR Government escaped under cover of the action.

According to “Oorlogsherinneringe”, the Memoirs of General Muller, p154-56, it was a night attack with the sole purpose to kill the maximum number of troops, horses and oxen.

 

Storming the British Camp was ruled out  as being much too dangerous. Muller’s Commandant Groenewald and his men were positioned on the high ground on the east, Trichard and his men from Middelburg Commando on the high ground on the west (looking down into the British camp) while the Boer Vickers-Maxim was positioned to the south. 

However, when Muller/Groenewald started firing, Trichard’s men charged the camp. Being dark, Muller/Groenewald did not realise it and they kept on firing.

 

The next morning, they found out that 9  Middelburg men were killed, the majority probably through “friendly fire”.