TOPIC:

Van Hoepen photographed at least 3 of his propaganda photos twice. Here's a slightly different angle of the same scene

This pair shows van Hoepen himself with the outlying trench beyond. The photo either taken by Lund bros or by Hoepen's second camera.
It is of interest that no trace of the outlying trench can be seen today. This was the trench where the Lancashire Fusiliers surrendered, and it has been air-brushed off the battlefield.

Rob,

To add to the confusion regarding who took which photographs, the copies I have of the two images reproduced below each have erased copyright details for "LUND BROS / KROONSTAD / O.V.S." (i.e. not van Hoepen).













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The biggest mystery on Spioenkop summit is the nature of the long communal grave running roughly north-west, and quite separate from the known British trench. It is 80m long and has only two crosses on it, one towards each end. I've heard people say it was a Boer trench used as a mass grave - there are many reasons why this is not the explanation. My opinion is that the "grave" is an erroneous structure built up along a pathway between small graves. Possibly it was built up when the Ladysmith Public Works Dept decided to raise the level of earth and stones in the British trench grave, which was done to protect the remains within it which were becoming exposed.
I attach photos of what I refer to - in all these, it is in an orange circle; the British trench grave is in a green circle. I attach an early view of what I think is this structure, and its appearance today.
I would welcome any information about it, and especially welcome any historical photos of this area.
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Rob,

I might be able to help a little with this one.

I visited the site on 15 July 1978, with Welly Hyde as tour guide. It was a very different place back then, accessible only with a serious 4x4.

My diary for that day states "we first saw what looked like a trench grave for the I.L.H. [sic - I.L.I.]. However, Welly was quick to tell us that there had never been a trench here, and that it was in fact a large communal grave". The photograph I took on the day shows our truck parked close to the "trench" you refer to in your post, confirming that Mr Hyde's comments relate to the same feature.

As I believe you are aware, Mr Hyde used his position on the War Grave's Board as an excuse to ferret about where ever he felt fit. He would therefore have known very well whether the linear feature contained human remains or not. From my diary it would seem that the answer to this is that it did.

Smail 1971 describes it as a mass grave to the Royal Lancasters, whereas I believe Welly told us it was the resting place for men of the Imperial Light Infantry. The length of the grave seems rather too long for thirty corpses (the number of I.L.I. casualties). Perhaps men from both regiments were buried here.








Smail 1971, p. 88





Smail 1971, p. 89. This map appears to be based on sketches made on the ground and is is extremely inaccurate.





Smail 1971, p. 86


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On close examination, this rather uninteresting photograph taken by Middlebrook appears to show an earthwork or sangar behind the main British trench.

The rubble in the foreground suggests that this was taken in front of the newly erected main memorial, and the orientation of the I.L.I. monument in the left distance seems to confirm this (see below).

Assuming Middlebrook used a lens with a c. 50-degree angle of view, the photograph depicts an area of ground that is now featureless. However, in the middle distance on the right, extending across about one third of the picture, what appears to be an earthwork is just discernible. The approximate location of this feature is marked in green on the aerial photograph below.






"The Exposed Top (No 2) - Battle ground of Spion Kop where the T.M.I., I.L.I., Lanc. Fusiliers and Middlesex Regt suffered so severely - Jan 24th 1900" (Photographed by Middlebrook, Durban).
What appears to be an earthwork or sangar can be seen in the middle distance on the right. The lower image is a close-up of the western end of this feature (about half of what is visible in the photograph).





These two images show the different viewing angles of the I.L.I. Monument. The first is a photograph taken from the northern end of the eastern arm of the main British trench, where the memorial is seen face on. The second is a close-up of the Middlebrook photograph. The angle of view indicates that this was taken from a position roughly 22.5 degrees to the west of the first image. This places the photographer on a line that passes directly through the main Spion Kop memorial (see below).




Image from Google Maps, showing the approximate position of the photographer, the angle of view (in red) and the location of the earthwork (in green).


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