TOPIC:

At the beginning of February, Commandant P.A. Krantz, of the German Corps, came up with the idea of damming the Klip River, with the intention of creating a reservoir of water with which to flood Ladysmith.

Remarkably, Henry Pearce, special correspondent for the Daily News, notes that a heliograph was received from Buller warning of the German engineers’ plans on 1st February, which was the day before construction began. The message simply read: “German specialist landed at Delagoa Bay pledges to dam up Klip River and flood Ladysmith out”.

Despite Buller's heliograph, Donald Macdonald, of the Melbourne Argus, found the dam theory somewhat fanciful and preferred to believe that the Boers were building a bridge.

A great amount of effort was put into this project, but it was doomed to failure. As Maj-Gen Sir Frederick Maurice puts it “though the dam rose steadily above the river, to the chagrin of its projectors and the expectant burghers, the river itself rose not an inch behind it”.

The novelty of the enterprise gained much attention, and more photographs were taken of this than of any other endeavour associated with the besieging forces at Ladysmith. The project also attracted the attention of the Naval guns on Caesar's Camp, which periodically lobbed a shell in amongst the workmen. After this, construction continued at night.

Below are a few of the many known images.







































Amery 1906, Vol IV, pp 525 & 526

Although the garrison was constantly informed that an assault was again in preparation, yet in reality nothing was further from the minds of the Boers. The activity of the Relief Force south of the Tugela occupied the whole attention of the Boer leaders, and demanded the massing of every available rifle south of Ladysmith. So far was the thought of carrying Ladysmith by a second assault absent from the minds of the Boers, that in January-February the investing force at Ladysmith was reduced to the barest limit necessary to preserve the cordon, and rarely exceeded 5,000 men, some authorities even placing it as low as 3,500.

In reality, the Boers had other designs upon Ladysmith. It had been suggested to the Commandant-General that the reduction of the garrison could possibly be brought about without further bloodshed by the damming of the Klip River below Ladysmith.

A survey was consequently carried out by a Captain Halder and a Mr Schmitz-Dumont. They recommended the raising of a 30 ft dam at a point where the Klip passes through the Bulwana Gorge, and estimated that a barrage here would flood the Ladysmith plain to such a degree as to render communication between Ladysmith and Intombi impossible, and prevent any sortie or operations against Bulwana; also that the town would be partially flooded, and, as a subsidiary advantage, in the event of an abandonment of the Tugela positions by the Boers, the sudden destruction of the dam would impede the advance of the relief force from the south. A contractor was readily found, and the work on the dam began. A tramway extension was made to join the Bulwana-Colenso section of the railway, and large gangs of Kaffirs were employed in the construction of the barrage, which took the form of a sandbag bund.

These engineering operations were undertaken in full view of Caesar’s Camp, and for a considerable period puzzled the garrison. A 12-pounder naval gun was brought to bear on the labourers, but, although it was possible to impede the work during the day, the construction proceeded apace by night. But in spite of the estimate that it would only take four weeks to complete the work, the "Ladysmith dam" was never completed.


Maurice 1907, Vol II, pp 579 & 580

On February 2nd, the enemy began to put into execution a fantastic plan which had been suggested by Krantz, the commander of the German Corps, namely, to dam with bags of earth the Klip river, at a defile beneath the southern foot of Umbulwana. By this they hoped to "put a great part of the Ladysmith plain under water", thereby (a) safeguarding the guns on Umbulwana and Lombards Kop from any repetition of the sorties of December 7th and 10th, (b) cutting off the defenders of Caesar’s Camp from the remainder of the garrison, (c) flooding the British magazines, (d) in case of their having to raise the siege, rendering the Klip unfordable by blowing up the dam and creating an artificial flood. Hundreds of thousands of mealie bags and much other material had been collected since January 13th. A tramway extension of the railway had been completed to the river bank, and a large number of Kaffirs enlisted for the work. But though from this day the dam rose steadily above the river, to the chagrin of its projectors and the expectant burghers, the river itself rose not an inch behind it, nor caused to the defenders of the town even the most transitory annoyance.



Pearse 1900, p. 218

February 1.
We have had no news from General Buller beyond a heliograph, warning us that a German engineer is coming with a plan in his pocket for the construction of some wonderful dam which is to hold back the waters of the Klip River and flood us out of Ladysmith.



Macdonald 1900, pp. 260-262

The Boers never spared themselves either on the Tugela or about Ladysmith in works necessary for resistance or assault. Their energy found a new outlet in the building of a stone bridge or weir just round the southern shoulder of the Bulwan, where both the river and railway find a way out of the valley through a narrow gorge. It was this same convenient cleft in the ridges that gave us a clear view of the distant crest of Weenan's Hill, and enabled us to communicate with the relief column. All sorts of rumours were quickly afoot as to the intentions of the enemy, and the popular impression, the prevalent fear in Ladysmith, was that, in despair of getting us out immediately, either with gun or rifle, they were trying to drown us out by damming back the waters of the Klip river and converting the valley into a lake. The thing was feasible. One had only to study the position from the high points around the town, to realize that the facilities for forming a- large artificial lake were exceptional. A single weir of no great length would effect the purpose, and, indeed, Ladysmith during heavy floods is more or less of a lake, and the residents take to the hills for safety, as rabbits in the Mallee make for the pine ridges when the Murray sends its flood of melted snow out through the backwaters into the wilderness. That was the original mistake with Ladysmith. It should have been a lake, not a town. It appeared to me, however, that if the Boers really meant to drown us out they had started work rather late in the day. Even an army with all its resources in free labour cannot hold back a lake of five miles in diameter and fifty feet deep with a Partington mop. It needs masonry of the most substantial kind, and watching the Boers at work from the summit of Caesar’s Hill, it seemed to me that they were bridge builders only, not weir builders. They had even then begun to see that Buller's persistency might win its way in the end, spite of every discomfiture, and what more likely than that those far-seeing Dutchmen, who leave so little to chance, were just making their own line of retreat secure. The Klip river, fed by the storms of the distant Drachenbergs, comes down occasionally in floods sudden and severe. It was quite a common experience to go to bed at night with the river low, and, without a drop of rain falling in the valley, to find it in heavy flood in the morning. The Boers, be sure, had noted this, and considered all the consequences of finding the drifts impassable when finally forced from the Tugela, and with the only bridge in the locality under our protection.

We discovered that from one point on Caesar’s Hill we could look down upon the bridge builders through the cleft in the ridge, so a naval 12-pounder was got up there. As soon as work started next morning, we pitched a shell on to them, and the bridge builders went flying to shelter like a rock of frightened partridges. The following night we took one of the 4.7’s to the same position, and thereafter work was casual, though the manner in which they persisted with it showed that they set some store on the undertaking. At first they were angry at the interruption – very angry – and for a while their Long Tom devoted himself entirely to the shelling of Caesar’s Hill, without, however, doing very much damage. We, on the other hand, were apparently sulkily silent. The fact was that we had no ammunition to waste, and, having got the range, we said in our silence, "When you've built your bridge, just send a convoy over it, and give us a chance". We wanted some better target than fatigue parties, and only gave them a shell when a fair number of them were at work. Thus the game of check and counter-check went on. So much of modern war is purely waste work, the measurement of move by move, much of it unseen by the looker-on, until all of a sudden one side develops the mastery in tactics, and a battle has been won ere yet a shot is fired.








..