THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES IN FRANCE
[Illustration: DELVILLE WOOD.]
THE HISTORY OF THE
SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES
IN FRANCE
BY
JOHN BUCHAN
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD.
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK
PREFACE.
In the autumn of 1916 I was asked by the Union Government to undertake
the official History of the South African Forces in Europe. At the
time I was serving in France, and had therefore an opportunity to see
something of the Infantry Brigade. For various reasons I was unable to
begin the work until after the signing of the Armistice: since which
date I have had at my disposal all official papers, and have received
the assistance of many South African officers. I desire to express my
gratitude to Major-General Sir H. T. Lukin, Brigadier-General Dawson,
Brigadier-General Tanner, and the various battalion and battery
commanders for the help they have given me. I would especially thank
Major H. P. Mills of the Third Regiment, but for whose unwearying
co-operation the book could not have been written. My aim has been to
tell as simply as possible the story of a great military achievement, to
my mind one of the finest in the whole history of the campaigns; and, at
the same time, to provide a detailed account of the operations of the
infantry and the other services, which, I trust, may be of interest as
a war record both for the men who fought and for the country which sent
them forth.
J. B.
CONTENTS.
I. THE RAISING OF THE BRIGADE 11
II. THE CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EGYPT 23
III. THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME: DELVILLE WOOD 43
IV. THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME: THE BUTTE DE WARLENCOURT 83
V. THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 104
VI. THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES 128
VII. THE EVE OF THE GREAT GERMAN ATTACK 148
VIII. THE SOMME RETREAT: GAUCHE AND MARRIÈRES WOODS 165
IX. THE BATTLE OF THE LYS 193
X. THE SUMMER OF 1918 216
XI. THE ADVANCE TO VICTORY 228
XII. CONCLUSION 257
APPENDICES.
I. THE HEAVY ARTILLERY 267
II. THE SOUTH AFRICAN SIGNAL COMPANY (R.E.) 279
III. THE MEDICAL SERVICES 317
IV. THE RAILWAYS COMPANIES AND MISCELLANEOUS TRADES COMPANY 333
V. THE CAPE AUXILIARY HORSE TRANSPORT COMPANIES 337
VI. VICTORIA CROSSES WON BY SOUTH AFRICANS DURING THE WAR 341
VII. HONOURS WON BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES IN FRANCE 349
INDEX 387
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Delville Wood _Frontispiece_
Major-General Sir Henry Timson Lukin, K.C.B., C.M.G.,
D.S.O. _Facing page_ 18
“Nancy,” the 4th Regiment Mascot, on the Somme Battlefield ” 46
Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Jones, C.M.G., D.S.O. ” 54
Longueval Village after the Battle ” 58
Brigadier-General W. E. C. Tanner, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. ” 60
Lieutenant W. F. Faulds, V.C. ” 66
Lieutenant-Colonel E. F. Thackeray, C.M.G., D.S.O. ” 70
Brigadier-General Frederick Stewart Dawson, C.M.G., D.S.O.,
A.D.C. ” 102
Second-Lieutenant W. H. Hewitt, V.C. ” 142
Lieutenant-Colonel E. Christian, D.S.O., M.C. ” 170
Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Heal, D.S.O. ” 186
Lieutenant-Colonel D. M. MacLeod, D.S.O., M.C., D.C.M. ” 232
Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. L. Tripp, D.S.O., M.C. ” 276
Lieutenant-Colonel N. Harrison, C.M.G., D.S.O. ” 286
Colonel P. G. Stock, C.B., C.B.E. ” 318
Lieutenant-Colonel F. R. Collins, D.S.O. ” 334
Lieutenant-Colonel G. Helbert, C.B.E. ” 348
LIST OF MAPS.
1. Operations on the Western Frontier of Egypt. _Facing page_ 24
2. Scene of Earlier Operations near Mersa Matruh ” 28
3. The Advance to Agagia and Barrani ” 32
4. Barrani to Sollum ” 36
5. Longueval and Delville Wood ” 56
6. The Fighting before the Butte de Warlencourt ” 92
7. The Scene of the Advance of the South African Brigade
against the Butte de Warlencourt Position ” 96
8. The South African Brigade at the Battle of Arras: First
Stage of the Advance ” 118
9. Battle of Arras: Final Stage of the Advance ” 124
10. The South African Attack at the Third Battle of Ypres ” 134
11. The Third Battle of Ypres ” 146
12. The Positions held by the South African Brigade at the
outset of the German Offensive of 1918 ” 162
13. The Somme Retreat ” 166
14. The Retreat of the South African Brigade ” 174
15. The Fight at Marrières Wood ” 180
16. The Action of the South African Brigade on Messines Ridge ” 198
17. The Scene of the Fighting round Mont Kemmel ” 206
18. The Fighting about Méteren ” 220
19. The Victorious Advance. Operations of the XIII. Corps
up to 11th November 1918 ” 230
20. The South African Attack beyond Beaurevoir, 8th October
1918 ” 234
21. The Advance from Maretz to Reumont ” 238
22. The Fighting for the Crossing of the Selle ” 246
THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES IN FRANCE.
CHAPTER I.
THE RAISING OF THE BRIGADE.
The Purpose of the Book—South Africa in History—Her Problem
at the Outset of War—General Botha’s Proposal to Furnish a
Contingent for Europe—The Composition of the Brigade—The
Officers—Brigadier-General Lukin—The Heavy Artillery
Batteries—The Field Ambulance—The Medical Services—The
Contingent arrives in England—The Situation at the close of
1915—The Brigade ordered to Egypt.
This book is the tale of a great achievement in war. It is a record of
the deeds of that expeditionary force which represented South Africa
on the front in the West. There were South Africans in many British
battalions, in cavalry regiments, in the Flying Corps, in every auxiliary
service; but here we are concerned only with the contingent which, with
its appurtenances, was the direct contribution of the Union Government to
the main battle-ground. It is a tale to be proud of, for among the many
brigades in that field the South African Infantry Brigade may be said,
without boasting, to have had no superior and not many equals. In the
fellowship of war great deeds go to a common stock, and the credit of
one is the credit of all. But it is permitted to detach the doings of a
single unit, not to make petty comparisons, but to hearten ourselves with
the contemplation of exploits which offer an incontrovertible proof of
manly virtue and civic vigour. In such a spirit let this story be told.
South Africa is no newcomer among the nations, for she has interested the
world for three thousand years. She was the port of Phœnician adventurers
centuries before the birth of Christ; she was the goal of the great
Portuguese captains in the first dawn of the Renaissance; Holland claimed
her when Holland was the first of sea-Powers; she received the flower of
the Huguenots scattered by the French religious wars. During the century
which has elapsed since Britain first acquired an interest in her soil,
she has been the theatre of many wars, as she has been the cradle of many
industries. “From Africa comes always some new thing”—the proverb is as
old as Aristotle; and the ancient continent has not lost her power to
surprise the world. South Africa has had some magic in her to beguile the
hearts of all races, and he who has once been captured by the love of
her wide sun-steeped spaces will never forget them, and, though he leave
her, will assuredly return. For her charm lies in the paradox that she
is long-descended and old; and yet eternally young. Distant as she is
from the main centres of the world, scarcely one of the great crises of
modern history has left her untouched; and it was right, nay inevitable,
that in a war of nations she should play a conspicuous part. She who had
passed through so many furnaces, could not stand aside when that for
which her sons had often fought was challenged, and the hard-won gains
of civilization stood in jeopardy.
* * * * *
Of all the nations of the British Commonwealth she had at the outbreak
of war the most intricate task. Australia and New Zealand, once the
Pacific Islands were cleared, were free to look to Europe; Canada had no
nearer enemy than the Germans in France and Flanders; but South Africa
had foes within and without her gates. She had to contend with internal
revolution and with the enemy across her border, while a thousand miles
off, in German East Africa, there awaited a problem which she must
help to solve. Hence the first business of her Government was her own
security. When on September 8, 1914, General Botha announced that, after
due consideration, he and his colleagues had resolved to carry the war
into German territory, “in the interests of South Africa as well as of
the Empire,” he could not foresee what this most honourable resolution
involved. Germany had been engaged for years in putting temptation in the
way of restless spirits within the Union. In a month Maritz was in revolt
in the north-east part of the Cape Province, and conducted a guerilla
campaign till the end of October, when Brits and Van Deventer drove him
over the German frontier. About the same time, within the confines of
the Union, rebellion broke out under De Wet and Beyers, and it was not
till the close of the year that the treason was crushed by Botha with
firmness and far-sighted humanity. Early in 1915 began that great “drive”
in German South-West Africa which brought the troops of the Union on
12th May to Windhoek, and on 2nd July to Otavifontein, and on 9th July
forced the enemy remnant to an unconditional surrender. Of this campaign
let General Smuts speak: “Not only is this success a notable military
achievement, and a remarkable triumph over very great physical, climatic,
and geographical difficulties. It is more than that, in that it marks in
a manner which history will record for all time the first achievement
of the United South African nation, in which both races have combined
all their best and most virile characteristics, and have lent themselves
resolutely, often at the cost of much personal sacrifice, to overcome
extraordinary difficulties and dangers in order to attain an important
national object.”
[Sidenote: _July 1915._]
General Botha did not rest on his laurels. He saw the great war in its
true perspective, and recognized that no part of it was alien to South
Africa’s interest. She was as intimately concerned in the decision
now being sought on the battlefields of Europe as in clearing her own
borders. He was in the highest sense a patriot, for, while abating
nothing of his loyalty to the land of his birth, he saw that the fortunes
of that land were indissolubly bound up with the fortunes of the British
Commonwealth, and of that civilization which Germany had outraged. Hence,
he could not acquiesce in South Africa’s inaction after the close of the
German South-West campaign. But the old problems were still there. He
dared not denude the country of too many of her most loyal and vigilant
citizens so soon after the Rebellion. Moreover, there remained German
East Africa, where at the moment the British troops were precariously
situated, and it was already becoming clear that South Africa must take
a hand in that campaign. As early as April 1915, the Union Government had
discussed the matter with the Imperial Government, for it was reasonable
to suppose that the troops would return from German South-West Africa
shortly after midsummer, and it was necessary to decide on a plan. In
July the Imperial Government accepted General Botha’s proposal to furnish
a contingent for Europe. South Africa’s exchequer, already depleted by
her local wars, could not undertake the equipment and payment of these
troops throughout the campaign. It was accordingly arranged that the
contingent should be equipped, as far as possible, from stores in hand
and paid by the Union up to the date of their embarkation. Thereafter
they would be paid at the rate of British regular troops,[1] and have the
status of the new service battalions of the British army.
The War Office had asked especially for infantry, and an infantry
contingent was bound to be raised largely from the inhabitants of British
blood. The Dutch had provided mounted troops, who had done fine service
in German South-West, and were to do still finer work the following
year in German East Africa. They were natural light-cavalrymen, and the
infantry service had not for them the same attraction.[2] But throughout
the land there were men who had served in the war of 1899-1902—some
of them old regulars; there were the various volunteer regiments;
and there were many young men in town and country whose eyes turned
naturally towards Europe. Sir Charles Crewe was appointed Director of
Recruiting, and there was no lack of response to the appeal. It was
generally agreed that, considering the smallness of her white population
and the complexity of her other tasks, a brigade of infantry was the
most that South Africa could raise and keep up to strength. The war in
Europe was costly in men; 15 per cent. per month was the estimated rate
of reinforcements required, and in the event of heavy fighting it was
clear that this figure must be exceeded. Accordingly a brigade of four
battalions was decided upon, and at the same time it was resolved to
dispatch to Europe five batteries of Heavy Artillery, a General Hospital,
a Field Ambulance, and a Signal Company to be attached to the Royal
Engineers. The battalions were designed to represent the main divisions
of the Union, and recruits were given the option of joining the regiment
affiliated to their own province.
The four battalions were constituted as follows: the 1st South African
Infantry was the Cape of Good Hope regiment, drawn largely from the “Old
Colony;” the 2nd South African Infantry was the Natal and Orange Free
State regiment; the 3rd South African Infantry was the Transvaal and
Rhodesia regiment; the 4th South African Infantry was the South African
Scottish regiment, recruited from the Scottish regiments existing in the
Union, the 1st and 2nd Transvaal Scottish and the Cape Town Highlanders,
and from the members of the various Caledonian societies. This last
regiment is of special interest to the historian, for it had a long
ancestry. It descended from the 77th (Atholl) Highlanders, through the
Scottish Horse and the Transvaal Scottish regiments, and had, therefore,
something of the continuity in tradition of the old regular Army.[3]
As originally formed it numbered 1,282 of all ranks, of whom 337 were
Scottish born, 258 English, 30 Irish, 13 Welsh, 595 South African, and 49
of other origin. In nearly every company the Scots were stronger than any
other element except the South African born, who, of course, included a
large proportion of men of Scottish descent. We may take the constitution
of the 4th as in other respects typical of all the regiments. It showed
292 men not older than twenty years, 350 between twenty and twenty-five,
232 between twenty-five and thirty, 212 between thirty and thirty-five,
and 196 between thirty-five and forty. Only 344 of the rank and file
were without previous military training; of the rest 64 had been in the
Regular Army, 760 in territorial, volunteer, or irregular units, 97 in
both regulars and irregulars, and 17 in the police. Occupations were
thus represented: mining, 234; agriculture, 69; police and military, 21;
government service, 145; business, 722; and the various professions, 91.
Few of the new brigades were better supplied with men of the right kind
of experience, for many of the old South African irregular corps had
records of which any army might be proud; and no brigade showed a better
standard of physical well-being. It should also be remembered that
the level of education and breeding was singularly high. The Brigade
resembled indeed the famous 51st Division of Highland Territorials, which
was largely a middle-class division. In the slow intricacies of a modern
campaign there is need of intelligence and responsibility and power of
initiative in every man; and these are found at their best among those
who fight not only because they like it, but because they have much to
fight for, and are determined to get the job finished. The possession
of some education and a serious purpose in no way lessens dash and
tenacity in the field. This was the moral of the Highland Territorials
who were given first place in Germany’s catalogue of her most formidable
opponents, and it was also the moral of the South African Brigade.
Sir Charles Crewe was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 1st Battalion,
General Botha of the 2nd, General Smuts of the 3rd, and Colonel Dalrymple
of the 4th. The commanding officers selected were all permanent members
of the Union Defence Force. They were—for the 1st, Lieutenant-Colonel
F. S. Dawson, who was then in command of the 4th South African Mounted
Rifles; for the 2nd, Lieutenant-Colonel W. E. C. Tanner, District
Staff Officer, Pietermaritzburg; for the 3rd, Lieutenant-Colonel
E. F. Thackeray, District Staff Officer, Kimberley; for the 4th,
Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Jones, D.S.O., District Staff Officer,
Johannesburg. Major J. Mitchell Baker, of the General Staff of the Union
Defence Force, was Brigade Major; Captain A. L. Pepper, Staff Captain;
and Lieutenant-Colonel P. G. Stock, Senior Medical Officer. The depot
of the Brigade was fixed at Potchefstroom, where there existed large
cantonments and all facilities for mobilization.
[Illustration: MAJOR-GEN. SIR HENRY TIMSON LUKIN, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.,
Commanding South African Brigade to December 1916, and 9th Division from
December 1916-February 1918.]
To the command of the Brigade was appointed Brigadier-General Henry
Timson Lukin, C.M.G., D.S.O., the Inspector-General of the Union
Forces. General Lukin was a man of fifty-five, who had had a long and
distinguished record in South African campaigns. He had fought in the
Zulu War, and had been severely wounded at Ulundi. He was in Basutoland
in 1881, and in the Langeberg affair in 1896-7. In the war of 1899-1902
he commanded the artillery at the siege of Wepener, and was thereafter
in charge, first of a mounted column, and then of the 1st Colonial
Division in Cape Colony. In the German South-West campaign he commanded a
mounted column in the northern force under Botha, which marched east from
Walfisch Bay; after Botha’s departure he was entrusted with the details
of the final German surrender; and at the time of his appointment to the
Brigade was the General Commanding the Union Forces in German South-West
Africa. He was the essential fighting man, inured to the hardships of
war; but a life spent in campaigning had in no way impaired his genial
humanity. By virtue of his wide experience and his resourceful temper he
was a commander well fitted for a brigade so varied in composition and
destined to fight on such diverse battle-grounds.
At the same time the five batteries of heavy artillery were assembled.
In the German South-West campaign a Heavy Artillery Brigade, armed with
4.7 and 4-inch naval guns, had been formed at Cape Town, the _personnel_
being drawn from non-commissioned officers of the Royal Marine Artillery
and from the various South African artillery regiments. In June 1915
this Brigade was disbanded, and in July, largely from the old Brigade,
a regiment of heavy artillery was recruited for Europe. Only men of fine
physique and of a standard height of 5 feet 8 inches were accepted,
and the roll was closed when it reached a total of 600. The regiment
contained five batteries, the 1st representing the Western Cape Province,
the 2nd the Eastern Cape Province, the 3rd the Transvaal, the 4th
Kimberley and the Diamond Fields, and the 5th Natal. Before they appeared
on the fighting front the War Office decided that they should be rated
as siege artillery, armed with 6-inch howitzers, and affiliated to the
Royal Garrison Artillery. This involved each battery receiving an R.G.A.
number. The 1st Battery became the 73rd Siege Battery, R.G.A., under
the command of Major Brydon; the 2nd, the 74th, under Major Pickburn;
the 3rd, the 71st, under Major Harrison; the 4th, the 72nd, under Major
Alston; the 5th, the 75th, under Major Tripp.[4]
The 1st South African Field Ambulance was mobilized at Potchefstroom
during August, under Lieutenant-Colonel G. H. Usmar, S.A.M.C., and was
attached to the Infantry Brigade. This was a departure from the usual
practice, for a field ambulance is classed as divisional troops under the
orders of the Assistant-Director of Medical Services in the division, and
a new-formed brigade usually meets its field ambulance for the first time
when it joins its division. The General Hospital mobilized at Wynberg,
its _personnel_ being largely composed of volunteers from the staffs of
No. 1 General Hospital, Wynberg, and No. 2 General Hospital, Maitland,
and included representatives from all the provinces of the Union. It
accompanied the Brigade to England, and provided the staff for the depot
there, and for the South African Military Hospital at Richmond, as well
as for No. 1 South African General Hospital in France.[5]
[Sidenote: _Aug.-Oct. 1915._]
Between the 28th of August and the 17th of October the whole contingent
embarked at Cape Town for England. The Infantry numbered 160 officers and
5,648 other ranks; the Heavy Artillery, 34 officers and 636 other ranks;
and the Signal Company, 6 officers and 198 other ranks. By the beginning
of November all the services were safely established on English soil—the
Infantry being quartered at Bordon, the Field Ambulance at Fleet, and
the Heavy Artillery at Bexhill. For two months the units were busy with
their training, varied by the customary inspections. On 3rd November
the Brigade was reviewed by General Sir Archibald Hunter, the G.O.C.
Aldershot Command, and on the 19th the same officer, accompanied by the
Duke of Atholl, visited the 4th Battalion. On the 9th the South Africans
furnished a detachment for the Lord Mayor’s Show. On the 21st the senior
officers went to France for three days’ duty with the army in the field,
and on 2nd December the Brigade was reviewed by the Queen.
[Sidenote: _Dec. 30._]
It was an obscure and critical moment in the war. The great Russian
retreat had come to an end, but Mackensen had overrun Serbia and driven
the Allies back to the entrenched camp of Salonika. Gallipoli was about
to be evacuated. The ambitious attacks of Loos and Champagne had achieved
no decision. The first instalment of the new British levies had taken
the field; Sir Douglas Haig had replaced Sir John French as the British
Commander-in-Chief, and had begun that elaborate system of training which
was to make his army in two years the most formidable in the world.
The early hopes of the Allies had been dashed, and men were slowly
recognizing that the war was a longer and grimmer business than they had
foreseen. Already there were mutterings of that storm in the west which
in two months time was to break around Verdun. The South African Brigade
was at first attached to the 16th (Irish) Division, and it was expected
that the middle of December would see it in France. But on 7th December
the plans were altered. For its first taste of war the Brigade was to
retrace its course, and return again to the continent which it had left.
On 30th December the four battalions embarked at Devonport for Alexandria.