Hi Everybody
I visited the site of the Battle of Sannaspos in the early 1950’s in a group when 2 Oudstryder Burgers told us wide-eyed youngsters “hoe ons die Tommies gevang en die kanonne gebuit het”. I would like to think that they wore ABO’s , but in those days I (lamentably) mainly collected stamps and coins and medals were lost on me!
I have been fascinated by the affair ever since and over the years added a number of Sannaspos decorations and medals , as well as various snippets of printed & written information to my collection. The two A-4 pages submitted yesterday fall in the latter category : unfortunately I never asked Frank where and how he obtained/compiled them.
113 years after the event there are still unanswered questions, especially casualty/medal-related.
For example:
I have a Photostat of an 11 page handwritten commentary on the battle written by Brig Gen E J Phipps Hornby on 30 Nov 1931. The pen-ultimate paragraph reads
“It was then time to leave, my trumpeter bought me my horse which was shot in the shoulder as I mounted; the brigade trumpeter, who was with me, was wounded and the battery sergeant major was taken prisoner”
The Batt SM (W Cook) checks out on the SAFF Casualty Rolls as being PoW (I have his DCM group). However, who are the 2 trumpeters referred to? Trumpeter T Cresswell (Q Bty) was not taken Pow or wounded, but the above statement confirms his presence at the battle. Under the U Battery entries Trumpeters G H Gammon and A V Marsh are listed as PoW, but no mention of one of them being wounded. Was there another “brigade trumpeter” who is not listed in the SAFF Cas Rolls?
Another observation:
The following 3 entries are listed under the Q Battery casualties in SAFF Cas Roll, but they are not shown on the “Mitchell Lists”
68397 Gunner F Hewitt (wounded)
15103 Driver A Delooze (wounded) : on QSA roll with rank A/Bombdr
32719 Driver W Hek (wounded)
Also on the SAFF Cas Roll: 81743 Driver G Tyler (wounded) has initials A H on QSA roll and 69812 Gunner J Gray (wounded) is F Grey on QSA Roll.
Another question: Mitchell mentions Dvr S Collins as ?wounded?. He is not on the SAFF Cas Roll, and on the QSA roll there are 2 Drivers named Collins: 68150 “A” and 32722 “F E”. An inspection of their papers may shed some light on this (the papers that I have for my first Sannaspos casualty, 71119 Dr C Allcock, notes that he was wounded at Korn Spruit)
Henk
PS A tongue-in-cheek aside to Meurig re confirmed casualties: Have look at your Register entry for 215 Pte J Hirst Imp Lt Infy. Would you like to venture an estimate as to a value for his QSA?
H
