South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 6 (of 8): From the Occupation of Pretoria to Mr. Kruger's Departure from South Africa, with a Summarised Account of the Guerilla War to March 1901Creswicke, Louis
History
South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 6 (of 8): From the Occupation of Pretoria to Mr. Kruger's Departure from South Africa, with a Summarised Account of the Guerilla War to March 1901
Creswicke, Louis
South African War, 1899-1902; Transvaal (South Africa) -- History
On the 6th of June Sir Redvers Buller began his new move. General Talbot
Coke and the 10th Brigade and South African Light Horse, after some brisk
skirmishing with the enemy, seized Van Wyk's Hill, whereupon, during that
day, and the following day, the 7th, two 4.7-in. guns and two 12-pounder
naval guns were mounted on the eminence, while two 5-in. guns were
perched on the south-western spur of Inkwelo. General Hildyard, who
during the armistice had moved across from Utrecht to Ingogo,
concentrated his Division for advance over Botha's Pass, while General
Clery kept an eye on Laing's Nek, and beyond him General Lyttelton,
co-operating, brushed the enemy away from the right flank, and kept clear
the country between Utrecht and Wakkerstroom. Thus was prepared the way
for General Hildyard's brilliantly planned and admirably executed
assault of the spur of the Berg between Botha's Pass and Inkwelo, which
took place on the 8th, with the result that the enemy, some 2000 strong,
were outflanked and routed from their mountain strongholds, and the pass
was captured without serious loss.
The 9th was spent in a general halt on the summit of the pass, getting
the transport through the Drakensberg, hauling baggage up the steeps, and
skirmishing with Boers who hovered on the outskirts of the hills. The
labour entailed was prodigious, as the roads to the pass were intensely
precipitous, the hill being over a mile long, and many of the transport
waggons had to be double-spanned before they could make appreciable
advance. The troops, too, were sorely tried, for at night they shivered
in the crisp, frosty atmosphere, which appeared additionally numbing
after the warm sunlight of midday. Still, with unquenchable zeal, they
pursued their labours, climbing and clambering over boulder and slab, and
looking down on the chasms below with genuine satisfaction at the thought
of obstacles surmounted and decisive work to be accomplished. They had
now secured a commanding position, which in a very short space of time
they hoped to make unchallengeable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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