For All These Repeated
Successes It Was To The Intelligence Department, So Admirably
Controlled By Colonel Wools-Sampson, That Thanks Are Mainly Due.
Whilst Bruce Hamilton was operating so successfully in the Ermelo
district, several British columns under Plumer, Spens, and Colville
were stationed some fifty miles south to prevent the fugitives from
getting away into the mountainous country which lies to the north
of Wakkerstroom.
On January 3rd a small force of Plumer's New
Zealanders had a brisk skirmish with a party of Boers, whose cattle
they captured, though at some loss to themselves. These Boers were
strongly reinforced, however, and when on the following day Major
Vallentin pursued them with fifty men he found himself at
Onverwacht in the presence of several hundred of the enemy, led by
Oppermann and Christian Botha. Vallentin was killed and almost all
of his small force were hit before British reinforcements, under
Colonel Pulteney, drove the Boers off. Nineteen killed and
twenty-three wounded were our losses in this most sanguinary little
skirmish. Nine dead Boers, with Oppermann himself, were left upon
the field of battle. His loss was a serious one to the enemy, as he
was one of their most experienced Generals.
From that time until the end these columns, together with
Mackenzie's column to the north of Ermelo, continued to break up
all combinations, and to send in their share of prisoners to swell
Lord Kitchener's weekly list. A final drive, organised on April
11th against the Standerton line, resulted in 134 prisoners.
In spite of the very large army in South Africa, so many men were
absorbed by the huge lines of communications and the blockhouse
system that the number available for active operations was never
more than forty or fifty thousand men. With another fifty thousand
there is no doubt that at least six months would have been taken
from the duration of the war. On account of this shorthandedness
Lord Kitchener had to leave certain districts alone, while he
directed his attention to those which were more essential. Thus to
the north of the Delagoa Railway line there was only one town,
Lydenburg, which was occupied by the British. They had, however, an
energetic commander in Park of the Devons. This leader, striking
out from his stronghold among the mountains, and aided by Urmston
from Belfast, kept the commando of Ben Viljoen and the peripatetic
Government of Schalk Burger continually upon the move. As already
narrated, Park fought a sharp night action upon December 19th,
after which, in combination with Urmston, he occupied Dulstroom,
only missing the government by a few hours. In January Park and
Urmston were again upon the war-path, though the incessant winds,
fogs, and rains of that most inclement portion of the Transvaal
seriously hampered their operations. Several skirmishes with the
commandos of Muller and Trichardt gave no very decisive result, but
a piece of luck befell the British on January 25th in the capture
of General Viljoen by an ambuscade cleverly arranged by Major Orr
in the neighbourhood of Lydenburg.
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