TOPIC:

This is an intense one...
The Treacherous Shooting of Lieutenant Moir During the Action at Reitz

(British Army Fighting in South Africa, Savage Combatant Murdering Prisoner, Defending Wagon Train)
Issued 1901, The Illustrated London News

A visually appealing antique halftone print.

It is an original pictorial sheet extracted from a 20th century illustrated popular periodical.

Here are your pictured enlarged.....

Mike

John
Thank you for adding these pics to this thread. I wonder if more has been written about the 'Reitz incident'? Publicity in the ILN must have provoked some public reaction.
Regards
Brett

Brett and azyeoman
The defence of the convoy is quite well documented. Some time ago, I did posts in Medals and Awards regarding the activities of the 6th South Aust IB in the capture of DeWet's convoy at Graspan, near Reitz on 6th June 1901. My post only covered briefly F Sqn of 5/6SAIB in that action. The action is covered more fully in "The War with Johnny Boer" and in greater detail in Vol.2 of "After Pretoria, the Guerilla War".pages 768-773. The murder of Lt. Mair, L/cpl Harvey and Pte Blunt after they had surrendered is there covered in detail. The statement is also made that the Boers used expanding ammunition.
The "Graspan near Reitz" convoy battle received some attention in the German press; a Boer report alleging that "the english (sic) .... ordered the women and children to leave the wagons. Placing these in front of the soldiers, they shot beneath the women's arms and eight women and two children fell through the Boer fire". The German Chancellor actually lectured Mr. Chamberlain on the subject some time later.
The British reported that one woman and two children were hit in the exchange of fire after DeWet's convoy had been captured - "impossible to say by whom". The "Graspan near Reitz" convoy battle deserves to be better known. The British troops were heavily outnumbered, fought back resolutely and won the day. The allegation that "the english" used women and children as Human Shields at Graspan is, in my opinion, rubbish.
IL.

Here's another postcard of British PoWs that looks to have been made by one of the companies in the first post. Sadly it's unused. What can anyone tell about the guards in blue?

The word propaganda springs to mind here, the wretched hun was certainly a master at it, women and children had no place on the battlefield, but, the enemy thought otherwise from the very beginning and to the end of the campaign.

LinneyI wrote: Brett and azyeoman
The defence of the convoy is quite well documented. Some time ago, I did posts in Medals and Awards regarding the activities of the 6th South Aust IB in the capture of DeWet's convoy at Graspan, near Reitz on 6th June 1901. My post only covered briefly F Sqn of 5/6SAIB in that action. The action is covered more fully in "The War with Johnny Boer" and in greater detail in Vol.2 of "After Pretoria, the Guerilla War".pages 768-773. The murder of Lt. Mair, L/cpl Harvey and Pte Blunt after they had surrendered is there covered in detail. The statement is also made that the Boers used expanding ammunition.
The "Graspan near Reitz" convoy battle received some attention in the German press; a Boer report alleging that "the english (sic) .... ordered the women and children to leave the wagons. Placing these in front of the soldiers, they shot beneath the women's arms and eight women and two children fell through the Boer fire". The German Chancellor actually lectured Mr. Chamberlain on the subject some time later.
The British reported that one woman and two children were hit in the exchange of fire after DeWet's convoy had been captured - "impossible to say by whom". The "Graspan near Reitz" convoy battle deserves to be better known. The British troops were heavily outnumbered, fought back resolutely and won the day. The allegation that "the english" used women and children as Human Shields at Graspan is, in my opinion, rubbish.
IL.