TOPIC:

Gentle reminders
Used cases of shells left behind at Modder

Source: www.angloboerwar.com/forum/19-ephemera/3...-jack?start=78#96445

This photograph is captioned: "Artillery headquarters at Bloemfontein. On the Sunday before the declaration of war, lightning killed all the artillery horses.
This photograph was supressed by the Boer leaders. Two German artillery officers can be seen".

It seems that 23 of the OVS Artillerie's 42 horses were tethered to their mangers with steel chains, so when the lightning struck they were all killed. The incident occurred on Sunday 20 August, not "on the Sunday before the declaration of war".

[Added 21/08/2024 - MC Heunis notes: Just one correction, the propagandists got it wrong... The men in those pics were all Boers, just dressed in German made uniforms. The only German officer in the OVSAC was Albrecht, who does not appear here. In this photo the peaked "Schirmmütze" caps are probably worn by two NCOs and the floppy "Feldmütze" cap worn by enlisted men with their field/service dress. Officers also wore the peaked cap with undress and unofficial field dress, but theirs were of a finer material and with gilded badge].





Burnley Express, 28th October 1899

By G.F. Renwick, of Burnley.

President Steyn holds the balance between peace and war in his hand, and it is his bounden duty to make an end to this intolerable state of things. To proclaim days of humiliation and prayer will not mend matters, and is sheer hypocrisy. The warning voice of Providence was never more plainly revealed than on the Sunday set apart for the purpose, when a flash of lightning struck the Free State coat of arms on the cap of an artillery officer and tore it off, but saved the wearer, while it killed a large number (23) of artillery horses. Is this the finger of the Lord, and does it require any special revelation to understand its meaning?

August 20th and 27th were proclaimed by the Presidents as days of humiliation and prayer in both Republics. It was on the afternoon of the 20th, after the President and State officials had attended divine service at the Dutch Reformed Church, that the destruction of the artillery by lightning took place.

I, along with many other persons, went to the artillery stables, where 23 out of the 42 horses accommodated there, lay dead. The lightning had selected those animals which were secured by steel chains to the mangers, and the vagaries of the electric fluid were very striking.


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This photograph of No. 2 Redoubt, Kimberley Mine, shows the men of "M" Company, Kimberley Town Guard, together with two of the Diamond Fields Artillery's Armstrong 7-pounders. These guns, unlike the two examples captured at Kraaipan, have been mounted on wide "Kaffrarian" field carriages. The mountain gun carriages that the 7-pounders had originally been issued with were found to be unsuitable for the South African terrain, their narrow wheel spans allowing them to tip over easily. Some of the guns were therefore re-mounted on wider field carriages similar to those used with the 9-pounder RML guns. These became known as Kaffrarian carriages, after the region in which they were first deployed.

SEE ALSO: Armstrong 7-pdr (200 lb) Mark IV RML










Map of Kimberley, showing the location of No. 2 Redoubt. I suspect the above photograph was taken before Long Cecil had taken up position on the northern perimeter of the earthwork, necessitating the relocation of the two D.F.A. guns to the west side of the redoubt (as shown on this map). Map taken from the Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol. XXVI (1900).





Below are photographs of one of the remarkable models made by Palmer's Armoury, which show the construction of one of these guns in stunning detail. See: Palmer's Armoury - 7 Pounder RML British Field Artillery Cannon.



















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Another view of one of the Armstrong 7-pdrs at Kimberley.

With thanks to Tinus le Roux.




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One of Captain Scott's 4.7-inch Naval Gun field carriages, under construction on the deck of H.M.S. Terrible. From the position of the single recoil buffer this could be Lieutenant England's No. 1 Gun, which saw action during the bombardment of Colenso, 13th to 15th December 1899. SEE: The Bombardment of Colenso, 13th – 15th December 1899. Two guns of this type were mounted on carriages, one with spoked wheels (Lt England's gun), and the other with full plate wheels. Unfortunately, from this angle it is not possible to tell which of these this is.

The caption mistakenly describes the gun as a 12-pdr.









Still from a Biograph Company film of Lieutenant England's gun firing during the preparatory bombardment of Colenso. Probably taken on 13 Dec, on Gun Hill. Courtesy of the British Film Institute. SEE: Naval Guns Firing at Colenso.




Model of Lieutenant England's No. 1 Gun, made by 133927 Chief-Armourer Burke, H.M.S. Terrible (Crowe, G., The Commission of H.M.S. Terrible, plate facing p. 59)






From the same album, two photographs depicting the offloading of three 12-pdrs in Durban Harbour. Note the oilskin protective sleeves on two of the barrels.

Crowe,G., (1903), p. 64: "Arriving at Durban early on the 6th [November], the landing of guns, ammunition, etc., immediately began. This work was attended with great difficulty, owing to the heavy swell then, and nearly always, prevailing there. The draught of water of the bar was too shallow to permit of the ships entering the snug and spacious harbour, which would otherwise have saved anxious and laborious work on this and several future occasions during our stay there".







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Among a small collection of mostly-stock photographs in a bad state of conservation was this picture of a 12-Pounder Naval Gun. It looks somewhat familiar but I scrolled through all 44 pages of this thread without finding it, so perhaps it’s an original. The photographs belonged to an unnamed British Artillerist who appears on the second photograph that carries the text at the back: “This is the first of General Buller’s Artillery to be at Pretoria. I am second from the right, bottom row”