TOPIC:

Roedolf Johannes Britz

Prisoner of War - Christiana, 4 April 1901

Burger, Boshoff Commando

- Anglo Boere Oorlog Medal BURGER R. J. BRITZ.

Roedolf Britz(s) was born in the Boshof district of the Orange Free State on 19 July 1877 the son of Roedolf Johannes Britz and his wife Catharina Maria born Delport. He was named after his father in the Afrikaans tradition where one of the sons assumes the names of the pater familias.

Britz’s parents were married in Potchefstroom in the Transvaal Republic in 1873 and had moved to the Boshof district of the Western Orange Free State where they farmed Smitskraal, not far from the banks of the Vaal River. Growing up in these pastoral climes he would not have wanted for playmates – farming family’s were, of necessity, large ones with the men required to help out on the farm in the absence of reliable, trustworthy and affordable labour.

Roedolf Britz was the third child born, being preceded by Aletta Catharina Martha (1874), Pieter Frederik (1876) and, those who came after him – Jacoba Wilhelmina (1879), Elizabeth Jacoba (1893) and Magdelina Jacoba (1895.)

As the end of the 19th century drew near the storm clouds which had been gathering over the southern tip of Africa burst and the world woke up on the morning of 12 October 1899 to find Great Britain at war with the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. Being a Burger (citizen) of the Orange Free State meant automatic conscription and all men between the ages of 16 and 60 were required to assemble in the Ward to be drafted into the local Commando unit. In Britz’s case this was the Boshoff Commando under the legendary Commandant “Tollie” De Beer.



But first there was the small matter of his nuptials to take care of - at the age of 22 and farming in the Warrenton district not far from Kimberley, he wed 15 year old Maria Johanna Hanekom (with her parents permission) in the Dutch Reformed Church at Warrenton on 23 October 1899 – two weeks after hostilities had commenced.

Not long after, with his horse, saddle, rifle, ammunition and enough dry rations (normally biltong) to last for a month, Britz would have waved his young (in every sense of the word) bride farewell and headed for the market square in Boshoff to meet with his comrades in arms. One of the first orders of business, according to the Boer military system (such as it was), was to elect the non-commissioned officers (Corporal being the lowest non-comm rank) who would assist the Veld Kornets in the running of the Commando.

Those Burghers who did not either surrender of sign an oath of allegiance to the Crown were eligible to claim the Anglo Boer Oorlog medal which was only authorised by the South African Government in 1921, after representations had been made requesting a medal for those who served on the Boer side. Applications were made on a Vorm B, which, thankfully for the collector, required the combatant to provide the Commando with whom he served; names of those under whom he served and, most importantly, the battles and skirmishes in which he took part. The Boers, by completing the latter section of the form, were confirming that they were participants in these actions – and not mere by-standers.



Britz’s family made an early claim for his medal – completing the form from their then residence – P.O. Box 207 Salisbury, Rhodesia (the initial address of 21 Anderson Street, Turffontein, Johannesburg being crossed out), in 1923. History tells us that the Boshoff Commando fought in the Western Theatre of the Boer War, at Boshoff, Kimberley, Fourteen Streams, Macfarlane’s Siding, Poplar Grove and in the Brandwater Basin which saw the surrender of over 4000 Burgers in one fell swoop.

In Britz’s case he fought at:

- Bloemhof - Various
- Kalkheuwel - 3 June 1900
- Boekenhoutskloof - 8 June 1900
- Schweizer Reneke - 22 September 1900
- Taung - Various
- Vryburg - Various

His widow completed this section with the word “ens.” – which means “and so on,” implying that there were other actions Britz had fought in. As far as his superiors were concerned he served under Commandant J.B. “Tollie” De Beer of Schweizer Reneke.

It was also confirmed, under period of service, “From Boshoff in October 1899 till taken Prisoner of War at Christiana in June 1901. Sent to India and returned October 1902.” There is also a comment on the form to the effect that “Documentary evidence had been produced” to substantiate the claims made.


The red circles denote where Britz was born and raised, married, and fought - except for Boekenhoutskloof and Klipheuwel which were in the Transvaal

It is not the intention of this work to cover, in any depth, each and every one of the above actions, some of which were no more than skirmishes. Some, however, are worthy of mention – the first being the little-known action (or rather ambush) at Kalkheuwel, in the Magaliesburg district on the way to Pretoria which took place on 3 June 1900.

While Lord Roberts approached Pretoria along the man Johannesburg-Pretoria Road, Lieutenant-General Sir John French led a column of 4,500 horsemen to encircle the capital from the west. The column comprised several celebrated cavalry regiments, the Royal Horse Artillery and numerous Canadians and Australians. The British had earlier spotted a convoy of Boer supply wagons ahead and at about 16:00 the British column followed them into the Kalkheuwel Pass.



In 1900 the pass was a narrow wagon track with verges strewn with dolomite boulders, treacherous for horses, so the column was confined to the wagon track that followed the stream bed. In the late winter afternoon long shadows added to the menace of the rugged landscape and General French was anxious to get through the pass before dark.

Unknown to the British, about 600 Boers of the Wolmaranstad and Groot Marico Commando under Field-General Sarel du Toit lay hidden a few hundred yards away. Further down the pass towards Broederstroom, the Boers had positioned two Krupp field guns. As the column approached the pass, French ordered a squadron of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons to climb the slopes of the Kalkheuwel hill to cover the rest of the column as it moved along the road below. Leaving their horses behind them the Inniskillings reached the high ground at 16.30, just as the main column entered the narrowest part of the pass.

At that moment the Boers revealed themselves and opened fire.

Two men at the front of the column were killed immediately and another was mortally wounded. For a short while there was pandemonium on the congested track. Lieutenant J.W. Morton wrote in his diary: 'The noise was deafening: guns, pom-poms, Mauser and our own fire – one continuous roar, echoed and re-echoed amongst the hills.’

But Major Lee of the New South Wales Lancers distinguished himself by rallying his men and ordering them to take cover in the stream-bed or behind dead horses that offered some protection from the deadly Boer shell and rifle fire.

Gradually order was restored but sniping continued from both sides until well after dark as men fired at each other’s rifle flashes. Throughout the night Father Knapp, a Carmelite chaplain, moved heroically among the men, helping the wounded and giving encouragement.

The moon set before midnight and the Boer commandos were able to withdraw quietly under cover of pitch darkness. Eleven of their twenty-five wagons had been destroyed but the remaining 14 escaped safely to the Bushveld beyond the Magaliesberg range. They had taken a heavy toll but the Boers customarily removed their dead from the battlefield to be buried on their family farms, so the actual Boer loss will never be known.

The following morning French took stock of the situation. Incredibly, only three men, Sergeant W. Belshaw, Cpl. A Blackman and Pte Hall had been killed and several others were wounded, but the carnage among the horses was pitiable. Many were dreadfully injured and had to be shot to spare them further misery.



Another account of the Kalkheuwel battle read, partially, as follows:

‘There was no sign of the Boers by 16:30. Despite the fact that the cavalry had marched 38 miles and there was barely an hour's daylight remaining, French wished to capture the Crocodile crossing at Welgegund, assuming that the Boers had already crossed it. However, natives reported that the Boers and their wagons were still in the pass.

The cavalry pressed on into the jaws of the pass. The leading sections of the 1st Brigade were composed of Carabiniers and Inniskillings. In the evening light, they described the pass as being a 'deep, narrow defile shut in by a double row of rugged kopjies' and 'steep frowning hills held by Boers'.

General French sent two squadrons of Inniskillings to search the ridges on the left and one squadron of Scots Greys to the right. Before the flanking patrols had completed their searches of the ridges, the advance troops had entered the defile.

The Inniskilling advance guard under Lt Rundle continued ahead and saw two abandoned wagons. The leading patrol, comprising an NCO and two men, came upon Boers on the hillside on the left and gave the alarm. Boers were secreted on either side of the gorge, but mostly on the left, amongst the rocks and bushes.

Consequently, the Boers were forced to fire prematurely before the main body was completely jammed in the pass. The main body of troops had, in fact, just descended into a slight dip in the road commanded by a high rocky hill to the front. The Boers' sudden firing on the over-confident horsemen is variously reported as occurring at 16:00, 16:30 and 17:00. The weak setting sun in a cloudless winter sky would have cast sharp, dark shadows in the pass and there would have been about an hour of useful light remaining.

The Boers also started firing onto the road from the hill ahead and from the ridges on either side of this eminence. Two men of the advance party of Carabiniers were killed and another was mortally wounded. Lt Rundle had three horses shot from under him and Capt Johnson lost one. The main body of troops was so close behind that the Boers were able to fire onto the compacted mass from the ridges and even from the left rear. The intense rifle fire was supplemented by Boer shells.

From the bushes on either side of the road, the Lancers and some of 'A' Squadron Inniskillings, with the Carabiniers and the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Canadian Mounted Rifles, assaulted the ridges on both sides, but mainly on the left. The Boers, 'discovering that the Lancers had taken cover in a natural drain or ditch, worked up the hill above them on the left to where they could snipe at any man who moved or showed any part of his body.' They 'were under fire . . . for two hours until dark and each man expended an estimated two hundred rounds so that his rifle's barrel grew so hot that it blistered his hand.' Most of the time it was a case of 'lying low or stopping one.' By dark the enemy was beginning to 'spot' them individually and their range was accurate. One lancer, who had been left behind, asked an English officer where his comrades were. The officer replied, pointing down the road, 'They are down there in a perfect hell, and there won't be one-third of them ever come out alive.'

Both heights were captured with slight casualties just as darkness fell. As it grew dark, firing was sustained by rifle flashes on both sides and sniping continued for a further two hours. The crashing had given way to a 'deadly stillness', punctuated by occasional shots. There was a first quarter moon which set at about 22:00.

The Boers took advantage of the darkness to withdraw. They left six wagons abandoned in the stream bed.’

It must be remembered that, by this point in the war the Commando structure had broken down virtually completely. Through a combination of casualties, desertions and surrenders many of the original Commandos had been reduced to a handful of men and it made complete sense for those so affected to join with or be absorbed by larger Commandos.

The next affair in which Britz was embroiled was the “phony” siege of Schweizer Reneke. The South Wales Gazette of 21 September 1900, under the banner “A British Garrison Surrounded,” reported that, “News has been received here from Craddock that the garrison at Schweizer Reneke has been surrounded by Boers for the past fortnight. The garrison is strongly entrenched and there is no fear of its surrendering so long as provisions last. A relieving force is ready to move out from Vryburg. Schweizer Reneke is only 36 miles distant and will probably be quickly relieved.”

The St James Gazette of 28 September was able to report as follows on 28 September – less than a week later:

“General Settle with a force of 7000 men, has relieved the garrison at Schweizer Reneke, after an engagement in which the Boers suffered heavy loss. The Boer Commandant was captured.”

The British efforts to ramp up the pressure on the Boers accelerated and Lord Roberts was to write in his Despatch: ‘Further to the south and west, in the country extending from Modder River to Vryburg and Schweizer Reneke, the operations were entrusted to Major-General Settle, who left Christiana on 13 October with 600 mounted men, 10 guns, and 1350 Infantry. He occupied Bloemhof on 14 October, having captured 1,000 head of cattle, 12,000 sheep, and 80 horses belonging to burghers who had violated their oaths of neutrality, and he secured 50 prisoners.’

Wherever the Imperial troops went they executed their orders to burn farms and round up livestock to a nicety, leaving the remaining Boers in the field nowhere to go to find provisions and fresh mounts. Resentment mounted but the Boers were powerless to do anything about the scorched earth policy employed to bring about their ultimate submission.

Britz soldiered on until 4 April 1901 (not June 1901 as claimed in his Vorm B.) On that day, at nearby Christiana, he was captured and sent as a Prisoner of War to India, sailing for Madras on 27 April, where he was to while away the hours until his return in October 1902. Records indicate that he was the only Boer to be taken prisoner that day.

Back on South African soil Britz tried, although destitute and homeless as were the majority of his Boer comrades, to pick up the pieces of his life.

Unable to return to farming he sought employment on the Gold Mines of the Witwatersrand and it was whilst thus employed that he passed away from Pneumonia at his residence, 29, 2nd Street, Vrededorp on 26 August 1910 – at the age of 33. He was survived by his wife and three children – Rudolph Johannes, born 1905, Pieter Albertus and Aletta Petronella.

With their future prospects bleak, the Britz family moved to the then Southern Rhodesia from where, in 1923, the claim for Rudolph Johannes Britz’s medal was made.

Acknowledgements:
- A Short History of the Battle of Kalkheuwel – Vincent Carruthers (The Heritage Portal)
- Military History Journal, Vol 9 No 4 - December 1993 - Ambush at Kalkheuwel Pass, 3 June 1900 by Prof I B Copley, Dept of Neurosurgery, Medunsa
- Newspaper extracts acknowledged in the body of the work
- Familysearch.org for death notices and marriage details

Rory, just a word to say that I really enjoy your Medals-in-context stories. After two or more generations the descendants often have lost interest, photographs and documents end up in the skip and the man who risked limb and life for Queen or country floats off into oblivion. Your stories help keep them alive.

Thank you Everhard.

The Britz story was particularly poignant as I acquired the medal directly from the family who knew little to nothing about him.

As I always do when I get medals from families, I offer them the "mini-bio" that I compile iro their descendant. That way they can pass the history down in a written format as opposed to oral tradition.

Regards

Rory