TOPIC:

Here are a couple of photographs from the album of Captain Cecil Macready, 2nd Bn. Gordon Highlanders, taken immediately after the Battle of Bergendal (Dalmanutha / Belfast) on 27 Aug 1900.

The captions indicate that Macready believed these men were victims of Naval 4.7-inch Lyddite shelling.






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Very grim scenes Neville.
From what I can see of the corpses of these poor blokes, they do not appear to be badly mutilated. Would casualties of lyddite shells be more likely to have been killed by severe concussion rather than by frags of flying shrapnel?
Steve.

Very grim indeed, and unusual to see photos like this. I have not seen them before. Thanks for posting them. Very moving to see these images.
Steve, you are probably right - Lyddite could kill by concussion (blast), and General Ben Viljoen described a near-miss from a Lyddite shell:
‘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… I felt a piercing pain in my head, and the blood began to pour from my nose and ears.’
Alternatively, the deaths could have been from small arms fire or shrapnel and attributed to Lyddite if they were stained yellow:
Rev. 'Danie' Kestell wrote: "..the lyddite shells burst with a terrific crash, and their yellow smoke gave the burghers headaches and made the water in their flasks bitter."
John Blake wrote: "Boers who finally emerged from their trenches… were yellow about the eyes, nose, mouth and neck, and their clothes were yellow too; but when they washed their faces they were Boers again, and very lively ones at that."

Tinus le Roux has just finished colourising these images, adding further to their poignancy.

Thank you Tinus.






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Someone's father, someone's brother. There were 78 Bper casualties during this last set-piece battle. By deduction, is there anyway we can give these poor buggers a name or at least hone in on a small list of possibilities?

Herewith a picture of the stand for a mounted Pom Pom shell said to have been used in the battle.



Also attached pictures of a telegram sent from Watervalonder (where the ZAR Government was at the time) to Zonstraal. The Translation:
3 Page Telegram 28.8.00
From Watervalonder 12.45 pm received here 4.00 pm Zonstraal
From Ht.D to Tlg. Zonstraal

War messages: Watervalonder 28.08.00.
Yesterday afternoon the enemy broke through along the train track near Dalmanutha. This happened after our troops put up fantastic resistance to the overwhelming forces and their barrage with fifty canon for five days. Yesterday afternoon (the 27th), the bombardements were the most intense ever experienced during this war. Especially the heroic actions of the Johannesburg Police forces under the valiant Commander Oosthuizen [the notoriously famous ZARP’s] -at whom most of the bombardment was directed- is lauded by the Commander-General [Botha]. The bombardment caused a direct danger to the Machadodorp station [recent position of ZAR government on-the-move] and the latter position was evacuated in good order and all the supplies of ammunition and foodstocks that were there have been brought to safety.
Yesterday afternoon we regained control of Ermelo [a town approx. 120 km south of Dalmanutha] and the magistrate and other town officials have been brought back in function.
The enemy forces that left Pretoria in a northerly direction and that were heavily attacked by our troops [not clear, could be “and that heavily attacked our troops”] near Hammanskraal, occupied on the 21st of this month Pienaarsrivier and the next day took Warmbad. According to British telegrams, one of the officers killed during the battle of Hammanskraal was the well-known Lieutenant-Colonel Spreckley of the Rhodesian Regiment.
On the 26th of this month, our troops in Natal had an engagement with the enemy at Ingogo. The attack was directed at the enemy’s fortifications; we do not know the results as yet.