TOPIC:

Following on from my post card above featuring the Nicholson's Nek disaster, is this 1900 post card (in my own collection) depicting the same Mule Stampede titled “Runaway Mules, Cause of the English Defeat”.



The comedy verses, titled “The Runaway Mules” to the melody of “Als die Römer frech geworden” – A sarcastic 19th Century German song about beating the invading Roman Legions. These verses parody that but in place of Romans it is the invading British. Using Google translate the gist of the verses are “In the fight at Ladysmith . . . when the donkeys found out that the Boers were innocent. . . they stampeded through old England, these cheeky donkeys. . .whilst normally a roughneck, a donkey can also be clever, so England remember . . . everyone looking at the battlefield afterwards will see the mule was clearly solely responsible for the disaster. What kind of donkeys are they?” (or words to that effect!)





Owen

The Nicholson's Nek disaster was a theme that postcard artists all over Europe couldn't resist, as it played into the narrative that the British generals were inept. Caricaturists were already depicting English officers with donkeys' ears before the debacle (see below), so the image of a bunch of stampeding mules was an absolute gift to pro-Boer artists.

1. Austrian: "Vom Kriegs-Schauplatz / Neuestes Telegramm ohne Draht die Englander sind in London".
2. French: "Les ânes effarouchés"
3. German: "Die durchgehenden Maultiere"
4. German: "Groet uit Elandslaagte"
5. French: "Télégramme, 30 octobre 1899. Pedant la nuit, mille mules ont pris les mors (et les canons) aux dents"









Some used very similar imagery in their depiction of the Tweebosch disaster in 1902.

"Tweebosch, 7 mars 1902. / Evènement regrettable dû àl’affollement des mules et des ânes".







A French plate lampooning the Nicholson's Nek debacle.









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Wonderful to see these! I bet the 10th MB officers and men taken pow at Nicholsons Nek took their fair share of mockery too.

Owen