THE BATTLE OF VAALKRANTZ.
Soon after his defeat at Spion Kop, General Buller, moved by the
earnest entreaties for help from Ladysmith, and pressed by Lord
Roberts, attempted a third time to break through our lines. This time
my position had to bear the onslaught of his whole forces. For some
days it had been clear to me what the enemy intended to do, but I
wired in vain to the Commander-in-Chief to send me reinforcements, and
I was left to defend a front, one and a half miles in length, with
about 400 men. After many requests I at last moved General Joubert to
send me one of the guns known as "Long Toms," which was placed at the
rear of our position, and enabled us to command the Vaalkrantz, or, as
we called it, "Pontdrift" kopjes. But instead of the required
reinforcements, the Commander sent a telegram to General Meyer to
Colenso, telling him to come and speak to me, and to put some heart
into me, for it seemed, he said, "as if I had lost faith."
General Meyer came, and I explained to him how matters stood, and that
I should not be able to check the enormous attacking force with my
commando alone. The British were at this time only 7,000 paces away
from us. The required assistance, however, never came, although I told
the General that a faith strong enough to move Majuba Hill would be of
no avail without a sufficient number of men.
Early in the morning of the 5th February, 1900, my position was
heavily bombarded, and before the sun had risen four of my burghers
had been put _hors de combat_. The enemy had placed their naval guns
on the outskirts of the wood known as "Zwartkop" so as to be able to
command our position from an elevation of about 400 feet. I happened
to be on the right flank with ninety-five burghers and a pom-pom; my
assistant, Commandant Jaapie du Preez, commanding the left flank.
The assailants threw two pontoon bridges across the river and troops
kept pouring over from 10 o'clock in the morning. The whole of the
guns' fire was now concentrated on my position; and although we
answered with a well-directed fire, they charged time after time.
The number of my fighting men was rapidly diminishing. I may say this
was the heaviest bombardment I witnessed during the whole of the
campaign. It seemed to me as if all the guns of the British army were
being fired at us.
Their big lyddite guns sent over huge shells, which mowed down all the
trees on the kopje, while about fifty field pieces were incessantly
barking away from a shorter range. Conan Doyle, in his book, "The
Great Boer War," states that the British had concentrated no less than
seventy-three guns on that kopje. In vain I implored the nearest
Generals for reinforcements and requested our artillery in Heaven's
name to aim at the enemy's guns. At last, however, "Long Tom"
commenced operations, but the artillerymen in charge had omitted to
put the powder in a safe place and it was soon struck by a lyddite
shell which set the whole of it on fire. This compelled us to send to
the head laager near Ladysmith for a fresh supply of powder.
On looking about me to see how my burghers were getting on I found
that many around me had been killed and others were wounded. The
clothes of the latter were burnt and they cried out for help in great
agony.
Our pom-pom had long since been silenced by the enemy, and thirty of
my burghers had been put out of the fight. The enemy's infantry was
advancing nearer and nearer and there was not much time left to think.
I knelt down behind a kopje, along with some of the men, and we kept
firing away at 400 paces, but although we sent a good many to eternal
rest, the fire of the few burghers who were left was too weak to stem
the onslaught of those overwhelming numbers.
A lyddite shell suddenly burst over our very heads. Four burghers with
me were blown to pieces and my rifle was smashed. It seemed to me as
if a huge cauldron of boiling fat had burst over us and for some
minutes I must have lost consciousness. A mouthful of brandy and water
(which I always carried with me) was given me and restored me
somewhat, and when I opened my eyes I saw the enemy climbing the kopje
on three sides of us, some of them only a hundred paces away from me.
I ordered my men to fall back and took charge of the pom-pom, and we
then retired under a heavy rifle and gun fire. Some English writers
have made much ado about the way in which our pom-pom was saved, but
it was nothing out of the ordinary. Of the 95 burghers with me 29 had
been killed, 24 wounded.
When I had a few minutes rest I felt a piercing pain in my head, and
the blood began to pour from my nose and ears.
We had taken up another position at 1,700 paces, and fired our pom-pom
at the enemy, who now occupied our position of a few minutes before.
Our other guns were being fired as well, which gave the British an
exciting quarter of an hour. On the right and left of the positions
taken by them our burghers were still in possession of the "randten";
to the right Jaapie du Preez, with the loss of only four wounded, kept
his ground with the rest of my commando.
The next morning the fight was renewed, and our "Long Tom" now took
the lead in the cannon-concert, and seemed to make himself very
unpleasant to the enemy.
The whole day was mainly a battle of big guns. My headache grew
unbearable, and I was very feverish. General Botha had meanwhile
arrived with reinforcements, and towards evening things took a better
turn.
But I was temporarily done for, and again lost consciousness, and was
taken to the ambulance. Dr. Shaw did his best, I hear, for me; but I
was unconscious for several days, and when I revived the doctor told
me I had a slight fracture of the skull caused by the bursting of a
shell. The injuries, however, could not have been very serious for ten
days after I was able to leave my bed. I then heard that the night I
had been taken to the hospital, the British had once more been forced
to retire across the Tugela, and early in the morning of the 7th of
February our burghers were again in possession of the kopje
"Vaalkrantz," round which such a fierce fight had waged and for the
possession of which so much blood had been spilled.
So far as I could gather from the English official reports they lost
about 400 men, while our dead and wounded numbered only sixty-two.
Taking into consideration the determination with which General Buller
had attacked us, and how dearly he had paid for this third abortive
attempt, the retreat of his troops remains as much of a mystery to me
as that at Spion Kop.
Our "Long Tom" was a decided success, and had proved itself to be
exceedingly useful.
The Battle of "Vaalkrantz" kopje was to me and to the Johannesburg
commando undoubtedly the most important and the fiercest fight in this
war, and although one point in our positions was taken, I think that
on the whole I may be proud of our defence. About two-thirds of its
defenders were killed or wounded before the enemy took that spot, and
all who afterwards visited the kopje where our struggle had taken
place had to admit that unmistakable evidence showed it to be one of
the hottest fights of the Natal campaign. All the trees were torn up
or smashed by shells, great blocks of rock had been splintered and
were stained yellow by the lyddite; mutilated bodies were lying
everywhere--Briton and Boer side by side; for during the short time
"Vaalkrantz" had been in their possession the English had not had an
opportunity of burying the bodies of friends or foe.
I think I may quote a few paragraphs of what Dr. Doyle says in his
book about this engagement:--
"The artillery-fire (the "Zwartkop" guns and other
batteries) was then hurriedly aimed at the isolated
"Vaalkrantz" (the real object of the attack), and had a
terrific effect. It is doubtful whether ever before a
position has been exposed to such an awful bombardment. The
weight of the ammunition fired by some of the cannon was
greater than that of an entire German battery during the
Franco-Prussian war."
Prince Kraft describes the 4 and 6-pounders as mere toys compared with
machine Howitzer and 4.7 guns.
Dr. Doyle, however, is not sure about the effect of these powerful
guns, for he says:--
"Although the rims of the kopje were being pounded by
lyddite and other bombs it is doubtful whether this terrific
fire did much damage among the enemy, as seven English
officers and 70 men were lying dead on the kopje against
only a few Boers, who were found to have been wounded."
Of the pom-pom, which I succeeded in saving from the enemy's hands,
the same writer says:--
"It was during this attack that something happened of a more
picturesque and romantic nature than is usually the case in
modern warfare; here it was not a question of combatants and
guns being invisible or the destruction of a great mass of
people. In this case it concerns a Boer gun, cut off by the
British troops, which all of a sudden came out of its
hiding-place and scampered away like a frightened hare from
his lair. It fled from the danger as fast as the mules' legs
would take it, nearly overturning, and jolting and knocking
against the rocks, while the driver bent forward as far as
he could to protect himself from the shower of bullets which
were whistling round his ears in all directions. British
shells to the right of him, shells to the left of him
bursting and spluttering, lyddite shrapnel fuming and
fizzing and making the splinters fly. But over the "randtje"
the gun disappeared, and in a few minutes after it was in
position again, and dealing death and destruction amongst
the British assailants."
While I was under treatment in Dr. Shaw's ambulance I was honoured by
a visit from General Joubert, who came to compliment me on what he
called the splendid defence of Vaalkrantz, and to express his regret
at the heavy loss sustained by our commando. I heard from Dr. Shaw
that after the battle the groans and cries of the wounded burghers
could be heard in the immediate neighbourhood of the English outposts.
Some burghers volunteered to go, under cover of the darkness, to see
if they could save these wounded men. They cautiously crept up to the
foot of the kopjes, from where they could plainly see the English
sentinels, and a little further down found in a ditch two of our
wounded, named Brand and Liebenberg; the first had an arm and a leg
smashed, the latter had a bullet in his thigh.
One can imagine what a terrible plight they were in after laying there
for two nights and a day, exposed to the night's severe cold and the
day's scorching sun. Their wounds were already decomposing, and the
odour was most objectionable.
The two unfortunate men were at once carried to the laager and
attended to with greatest care. Poor Liebenberg died of his wounds
soon after. Brand, the youngest son of the late President Brand, of
the Orange Free State, soon recovered, if I remember rightly.
At the risk of incurring the displeasure of a great number of people
by adding the following statement to my description of the battle of
Vaalkrantz, I feel bound to state that Commandant-General Joubert,
after our successes at Colenso, Spion Kop, and Vaalkrantz, asked the
two State Presidents, Kruger and Steyn, to consider the urgency of
making peace overtures to the English Government. He pointed out that
the Republics had no doubt reached the summit of their glory in the
War. The proposal read as follows: That the Republican troops should
at once evacuate British territory, compensation to be given for the
damage to property, etc., inflicted by our commandos, against which
the British Government was to guarantee that the Republics should be
spared from any further incursions or attacks from British troops, and
to waive its claim of Suzerainty; and that the British Government
should undertake not to interfere with the internal affairs and legal
procedure of the two Republics, and grant general amnesty to the
colonial rebels.
Commander-in-Chief Joubert defended these proposals by pointing out
that England was at that moment in difficulties, and had suffered
repeated serious defeats. The opportunity should be taken, urged the
General.
He was supported by several officers, but other Boer leaders contended
that Natal, originally Boer territory, should never again be ceded to
the enemy. As we heard nothing more of these proposals, I suppose the
two State Presidents rejected them.