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Action at Six Mile Spruit, 4 June 1900 - Six first hand reports from 2 Norfolks

1. Josling H. 1907. The Autobiography of a Military Great Coat: being a Story of the 1st Norfolk Volunteer Active Service Company, 1900-1901. Jarrold & Sons, London, 426 pp.
In 1898 Cpl Harold Josling Bryant was a member of A Coy, 1st Vol Bn. In 1900 he was 5441, Bryant, 1st Volunteer Service Coy, 2 Bn and in South Africa. QSA (with Jo’burg, Cape Colony, OFS, 1901 clasps). Bryant writing as Josling, describes 1 Norfolk VSC’s first engagement at Six Mile Spruit, about 10 miles in front of Pretoria. It is the book’s most exciting content.

In the morning of June 4th the Volunteer Company was in the firing line, and moved out of camp at 4.30, marching almost due north. By 10 o'clock artillery fire was heard, the heavy guns of the sailors being particularly noticeable.
It was shortly after II when a stream known as Six Miles Spruit was crossed; the Company splashed through, and on reaching level ground again the order 'half left' was given. The men were now marching over rolling veldt, and far ahead stood a line of kopjes that hid what lay beyond.
The firing line was as follows: On the extreme left the Volunteer Company, next to them a Regular Company of the Regiment, then the Hampshire Regiment, the K.O.S B.'s, and the Lincoln Regiment, each with their two Companies extended in the firing line, and the remainder of the Battalion in support.
Next to the 14th Brigade came Stephenson's, then Pole-Carew's Brigade of Guards: in all some nine thousand infantry, with guns and Medical Corps in proportion. The artillery of the 7th Division had been sent well forward, and, with the heavy naval guns, were making themselves felt at long range. There is an aqueduct on the east of Pretoria over which runs the line to Middleburg and Delagoa Bay; this formed a target for the heavy guns at a range of something over six thousand yards. The object of course could not be seen, as it was behind a chain of kopjes; the guns were sighted by the aid of maps, and although they failed to find the aqueduct, many shells fell within a few yards of it. A Scotchman who lived quite near told my master later, that from his point of view, it was quite close enough. One of the forts to the south of the town was filled with people from Pretoria, watching the advance of the British; this fort became an object for our artillery, who placed two shells near the entrance, smashing the columns that supported the iron gates and sending the people pell-mell down the kopje.
As this was taking place the infantry were moving forward to secure the positions held by the M.l.'s who were acting as scouts. The Volunteer Company was nearing this kopje; battle music sounded from the other side. It is beyond me to describe this as I should like; perhaps the nearest parallel is that sharp cracking thunder sometimes heard in England during a severe storm —only this was continuous. The cracking of thousands of rifles, the 'ping-ping' of the bullets, the ‘pom-pom-pom' of the one-pound quick firers, the heavy 'boom’ of the fifteen-pounders, the shrieking of shells overhead, and the dull drawn-out roar of the naval guns formed a volume of sound awful in its intensity. All this, taking place across a valley and vibrating from kopje to kopje, increased the tumult. To men who were facing a standing enemy supported with cannon for the first time it sounded as if nothing could live in this inferno. Up to now no cause for all this deafening clatter could be seen, but as the men approached nearer to the kopje held by the M.I.'s, the bullets began to drop thick and fast, just a 'puut' and a splash of earth showing where they fell.
One of our men had the felt of his water-bottle ripped off by a bullet; another fellow, who had one pass very near his right ear, would persist in marching in a 'half-left' direction. I suppose animal instinct told him that if he marched to the left he would be out of the line of fire; anyway he did not march straight to this front till his Officer warned him. Then he forgot the bullets and remembered discipline. It's a hard thing, I understand, to refrain from ducking, as one hears the bullets fly past; but one gets used to it in a few minutes, and then the ducker has to put up with such chaff as, "Hullo, playing football ?" or, "Why don't you put your head under your wing, same as the robin did?" There was a road running across the veldt which seemed to be a special object for the Boer marks men; probably they had the exact range, anyway the bullets were ploughing this road up, and a seemingly harmless 'puut, puut' showed how frequently it was being hit.
The Volunteer Company was now within ten yards of this road — marching straight towards it — when the order: "Into single file — Left turn!" came down the line. How many lives this order saved I should not like to estimate; but a good many. It was one of those strange coincidences that happen now and then in a campaign, and which some people call fate; but after what I have seen of life and death in Africa, I do not agree with them — it is something higher than fate, perhaps the best word is predestination. The order was taken up by the Officers of the Volunteer Company, and the men, obeying, moved to the left a few hundred yards, and then, the ground becoming broken, the order "Company —front" found them ascending the kopje. On arriving at the summit a perfect hail of bullets met them, but no one was hit. The men had halted, but had not been ordered to lie down or to fire — rather a trying position for unseasoned troops; however, only good humour met the bullets of the Boers : "Have another go, mother I'll never know," shouted one man; and then from another: "You'd better give up shooting and go fishing."
It is curious, but nevertheless true, that two men of the Volunteer Company chose this precise moment to start a heated argument. What it was all about, I do not profess to know, but I believe it was a difference of opinion as to what would be the exact effect of a bullet hitting either of them. So heated did the argument become that it attracted the attention of Lieut. P , who put an end to the dispute, remarking that they need not fight amongst themselves, as it looked as if they would want to keep all that for the enemy. Talk of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning, why these two particular men would have argued had the Universe been falling to pieces around them!
The order now came, "Company into file, — Right turn!" Then "Halt — front," and a downward wave of the hand for 'lie down.'
The men found cover, and, on having the range given, commenced blazing away at a rifle-barrel or a black slouch hat on the kopjes across the valley.
The men were happy — they had come in contact with the enemy. One Sergeant brought his Section up in front of him, himself kneeling and giving the order, "Ready —present —fire," just as if he were in a drill hall; and it is wonderful how one man's indifference to bullets steadies many. It was about this time that the Corporal in charge of one of the Sections reported that two of his men were missing. One of our Lieutenants went to look for these men; he did not have to go far, for he found them fast asleep about fifty yards to the rear, and behind the kopje. I have heard the Lieutenant say that he never could understand why these two men had dropped behind. Apparently they were not afraid, for when he found them he ordered them to fall in one on each side of him and marched them along the skyline to their Section. It was by no means a pleasant journey, this passage of the skyline, and it was purposely made slowly, yet neither of the laggards flinched. Arriving at their Section, these two men were soon blazing away with the best, notwithstanding they had both been asleep while this very pretty fight was taking place fifty yards in front of them. I leave it to the students of Psychology to determine the reason for this strange behaviour on the part of these men. I suggest that it affords a rather interesting study.
The gunners were now pouring shrapnel on the enemy. To see them work was a sight never to be forgotten. I heard at the time that the famous Q. Battery was near us, but that be as it may, the men that served the guns were men of iron. A shell was taken from the limber in the rear, the fuse timed, the breech lock opened and closed, the gun laid, a hand held up, the lanyard (to fire the gun) grasped. Then each gun commander shouted, "No. I gun, ready," or No. 2, 3, or whatever it was, the command from the Officer came crisp and sharp, "No. 1 gun, fire!" The hand was lowered, the lanyard pulled, and another fifteen pounds of shell was hurled across the valley. As it hung over the enemy's entrenchments, it discharged its cargo of small leaden balls about the size of marbles. The timing of the fuses, the elevation of the shells, were, no less than the actual serving of the gun, perfect.
So the battle continued. The infantry's incessant firing was augmented by the rattle of Maxims from both sides, and the pounding of pom-poms sending forth their wicked little one-pound shells ; these sounding for all the world like someone knocking for admittance at a door with their distinct pom!—pom!— pom!
The Company had been firing about an hour, and the advance was waiting for Hamilton's Division, which was coming up on the extreme right flank of the enemy, to make itself felt. One of our men had seated himself on a boulder, and was looking along the enemy's position with his glasses, entirely disregarding their fire ; his Officer came up to him.
" Hadn't you better get behind that boulder B…. ?"
" Oh, I'm all right, sir."
" Well, if you don't want to see home again, I dare say there are some there who would like to see you," said the Officer.
"Well— yes, sir," answered the man, and got under cover again.
Two of our stretcher-bearers had found work; a man, hit in the stomach, they carried ' to where a dhooly lay.' They returned under a searching fire, but although they walked some two hundred yards along the line, marvellous to relate neither of them was hit. A Corporal of artillery, who was in the act of wheeling his gun into action, was struck in the forehead and killed instantly; he was hurriedly examined by a doctor, buried under boulders, and was resting in his unknown grave before some of his Battery knew he was shot. Such is life and death in battle.
Rifle barrels were now becoming too hot to be pleasant, and the firing from the enemy less severe; but still no ground had been gained on our side, although we had performed a negative service, that of preventing the enemy from turning our extreme left.
But the day was moving on, and further measures were necessary, so "The Company will prepare to advance in sectional rushes," came down the line. My master said to his chum, "Wake me up when the fireworks commence, I'm going to sleep." As he dozed off, a naval gun, that had just come up, sent a big shell whizzing over the valley; my master has since said that in his short sleep he dreamed of England and a good square meal. B-o-o-m ! brought him from England to Africa, and from feasting to fighting.
It was well past 2 o'clock when the Boer fire slackened, and we heard Hamilton's guns on our left. Orders for the line to advance were now passed along, and, with a few desultory shots from the enemy, the Company stumbled down the kopje. On marching across the valley, a springbok got up and ran across the line; instantly one of our Officers, who was leading the Company, dropped to his knee and fired ; many of the Company followed suit, but a buck at two hundred yards is no easy object to hit with bayonet on rifle. Nevertheless, he had a bullet through his shoulder from one of our ' Bisley men ' before he got away. It is wonderful how the sporting instincts of the average Englishman are ever uppermost in his mind as, in this instance, forgetting discipline, the Boers, and their bullets.
Within three hundred yards of the kopje on which the Company was marching ran a road, and everyone supposed that the enemy were waiting for this to be reached before they opened fire — they usually possessed the principle distances where firing was likely to take place. The Company was quite prepared for a hail of lead, not that anyone showed it, for there was not even talking, which is always the first sign of nervousness. However, the road was crossed without incident, and the ascent of the kopje commenced. Now at least they expected opposition, and the illustrated papers of the time showed the Regiment dashing up with flashing bayonets, led by their Officers with drawn swords! This did all very well for people who knew nothing of the country or fighting, but if those who drew the pictures had attempted themselves to dash up the kopje in full equipment they would have known the utter impossibility of their drawing, and also that the Officers did not carry swords. No, the Company just climbed up. Of course, they were prepared for any opposition; but they did not dash any!
They had now come to the first line of the enemy's defences, and found all along small sangars, that varied in size from those that would shelter six to those that would hold but one man. These showed, by the piles of empty and full cartridges that lay scattered about, where our wily friends had recently been. Here and there remained traces of a meal, cast-off equipment, old boots, and many other signs which went to prove that these positions had been occupied for some considerable time. The men wondered why they had been vacated; possibly Hamilton's turning movement, combined with the deadly frontal fire of rifle and cannon, had decided the question. Had this ridge been held by the Boers in the beginning of the war, when our army was numerically weaker — both in mounted and unmounted troops —it would have been another Magersfontein; as it was, our casualties did not exceed one hundred of all ranks. Thus the position was won, and the battle of Six Mile Spruit fought.
Thus this wonderful Pretoria, about which we had heard so much, with its forts and its carefully prepared entrenchments, to say nothing of the mining of the ground—which, although paid for, apparently never got further than the paper on which it was designed—fell into our hands. It should be mentioned that the men had no idea they were so near the Boer capital, and that, for a time at least, their marching was at an end. Had they known this, there might have been more enthusiasm that night in camp.


2. Pte J Wilde, 2 Bn, Norfolk Regt, Eastern Evening News, 18 July 1900.
Wilde, a regular wrote from Wildeboom Fort, Pretoria 13 June 1900 to his brother in Norwich:

We arrived here on the 5th of the month, weary and footsore, but now we are as fit as ever. I expect you had rare old time over the fall of Pretoria. It was a great victory for us getting it so cheaply as we did. We had a bit of an action on the 4th, but we were very lucky in our casualties. The Volunteers got their baptism of fire here and I am pleased to tell they stuck it like the staunchest of veterans.


3.Lt Bernard H Leathes Prior, Lt BHL. Undated. The South African War 1899 - 1901 Letters from Lieut. B.H.L. Prior while serving in the 1st Volunteer Service Company Attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment. Published privately.
This text is from excerpts posted in late December 2025 by Mike Clarke on the The Royal Norfolk Regiment Living History Group, Facebook.

On June 3rd we marched on to a place called Looikop and by some stupid bungling got hopelessly mixed up with the 11th Division but as it was a short march only got clear of them and all pour wagons safe and sound. Next day we got off early the left half battalion consisting of E F and G, and the Volunteer Company acting as a flank guard. After we had done a good long march we heard the guns of Pretoria boom out in the distance, and an hour later we were going it hammer and tongs. On our right front we could hear the boom boom of our big guns and as we got nearer the smaller arms came into action. About 11 o’clock or a little later the noise became great on our right the big guns and the crack crack of a Maxim varied now and then by the sharp report of a Mauser or the poom poom of a pompom. Just at this time Major Becher who commanded us gave us the order to front form and extended us to 4 pace intervals G and the Vol. Company in the firing line E and F in support. We advanced on a kopje but found the enemy had vacated it. Changing direction half left we advanced to support a battery of artillery which had opened fire on a low range of kopjes. We made a steady advance and it came quite as a surprise to us when we found we were under fire. However of that there could be little doubt as little spurts of dust in front of us and a peculiar angry sounding hiss in the air soon showed where the bullets were coming. G. and the right half were more or less under cover of a ridge where the guns were, but No. 4 section (2nd Battn, sec.) were a good deal more exposed. We reached the ridge and opened fire at 1450 the range the gunners had found to be the right distance and after some minutes firing from us and a few well directed shells from the guns almost entirely silenced the enemy. While we were doing this the 21st Brigade were working round to the left and we could hear their pompom and Maxim hard at it. Thank God we did not have a single man killed, though there were several close shaves. One man in No. 1 section having his water bottle hit and another man his haversack. The Mounted Infantry* who were with us on our left were less fortunate having two men killed, while one of the gunners was killed and the Lincolns who prolonged the line to the right had 3 wounded. The right half battalion never came into action so the Norfolks were lucky enough to lose no-one. We encamped that night about 2 miles from the town without getting our baggage waggons so we had a cold night of it. Net morning the town surrendered, and we marched in without opposition.

(*7 MI included what was previously H Coy, 2nd Norfolks since retrained as mounted infantry.)

4. Anonymous. 1900. Diary of the Boer War: A hand-written diary in pencil detailing the experience of a soldier of the 2 Bn, Norfolk Regiment, 14 Brigade, 7 Division, Sunday December 31, 1899 to Wednesday August 1 1900. (The Wolfsonian – Florida International University,
digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF035042/00001 ).
The author and his company are unknown. In places his spelling has a Norfolk accent

4 June Whit Monday. Marched a distance of about 10 miles to a Six Mile Spruit. Both banks were occupied by the enemy. Our heavy guns, naval and siege, which had been put in front of the column were hurried on to assist the Mounted Infantry as fast as the oxen could travel over the rough ground and hills by which Pretoria is surrounded. The guns were supported by Stephens’s Brigade of Gen Pole-Carew’s Division [18th Brigade, 8th Division] and after a few rounds drove the enemy back. The Boers then attempted to turn our left flank. In this they were foiled by the Mounted Infantry and Yeomanry which was supported by General Maxwell’s Brigade which is my brigade, the 14th of the 7 Division, General Tucker being in command. We advanced to the top of a hill, the Boers firing at us all the time and when we got to the top we laid down and the bullets were flying over us like rain but not doing much damage, our Brigade Major being slightly wounded in the leg. The artillery done some very good work. They sent shell after shell into the Boer until they sent them back quicker than they came. We were unable to march much further as night came on us. So after 10 hours marching and fighting we camped for the night just outside Pretoria. Some of the Regt was for outpost duty on a very high hill and as our wagons could not get to us we laid out for the night which was very cold and could not get any water to drink and when I laid down to sleep shaking of cold, my thoughts were in old Norwich where I had left my dear wife and family and was thinking of the time when we shall be united again. At daybreak Tuesday 5th we were ready to march on Pretoria which we did in good style.


5. Lt FE Walter. 1930. Extracts from a subalterns South Africa diary. Britannia, volume 8, pp 62
Within a multi-part publication of his wartime diaries Lt Col Walter DSO described a rather uneventful day. He was with one of A, B, C and D Companies.

June 4th – Marched off 6.15 a.m. advanced towards Pretoria, a vigorous cannon fire, we were right flank guard, the left half of the battalion got into action. On outposts by night, got no food or water.


6. Pte Richard Henry Emms, 2838, Transport Section, E Coy, 2 Bn. R. Emms Papers (MS 1815). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
Emms, formerly 2246, 3 (Militia) Bn, was not with his company on 4 June. QSA Paaderberg, J’burg, Cape Colony

Left the regt on the 1st of June 1900 in Johannesburg to go on the line. Loaded up our construction train and started up country on the 2nd June to get to Elandsfontein. The line blown up. Two rails to put in. Finished, went up further to Irene Bridge. Blown up. 5 June: Pretoria is taken. Finished the bridge. Went to Pretoria.