Episode 68 - Douglas Haig ditches whiskey to hunt Kritzinger and Reitz meets a Crazy Horse.
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It’s New Year 1901 and the Boers have been busy over the Christmas Period. Jan Smuts and Koos de la Rey defeated General Clements in the Magaliesberg. Two Boer commandos have also entered the Cape Colony and attacked British positions at various locations. On the 28th December a commando attacked Helvetia between Machadadorp in the Eastern Transvaal and Lydenburg when a British garrison was overrun with the loss of 200 men.
Generals de la Rey and Beyers were harassing British convoys to the south and west of Rustenburg in the Transvaal.
Jan Smuts targeted Modderfontein just east of Johannesburg and defeated a British force leading 1500 men having been reinforced with Liebenberg’s commando. He then defeated a British relief column of 3000 men sent as reinforcements just for good measure.
On the other side of the Transvaal, action was taking place on a more massive scale as the plan took effect to combine General Louis Botha’s commando with General Ben Viljoen's burghers.
They wanted to shut down the Delagoa Bay railway line which was now crucial for British supplies.
While Milner worried, and Kitchener’s new scorched earth policy began to yield initial results particularly in the Eastern Transvaal, Deneys Reitz was dealing with a crazy horse as he and his brother continued on the campaign with General Beyers.
In December, he had been part of the Koos de La Rey attack on General Clements in the Magaliesberg at a place called Nooitgedacht. Remember how the mountain fight had led to the British withdrawing and the Boers seizing a great deal of material.
The first thing Reitz did was ditch his deadly Mauser in favour of the British Lee-Metford rifle. The Boers were running out of ammunition for the German weapons, and had seized tens of thousands of rounds from the British along with rifles, so naturally they kitted themselves out with the latest English equipment.
He gave his large English chargers away in order to reduce his stable, doing as most Boers did - riding with one or two spare horses. Deneys, however, retained what he believed was probably one of the strangest horses in the entire Boer army.
“My father had purchased him in the Lydenburg district from a homegoing burgher, who omitted to tell us that he was possessed of the devil…”
The horse, in a nutshell, was crazy.
Generals de la Rey and Beyers were harassing British convoys to the south and west of Rustenburg in the Transvaal.
Jan Smuts targeted Modderfontein just east of Johannesburg and defeated a British force leading 1500 men having been reinforced with Liebenberg’s commando. He then defeated a British relief column of 3000 men sent as reinforcements just for good measure.
On the other side of the Transvaal, action was taking place on a more massive scale as the plan took effect to combine General Louis Botha’s commando with General Ben Viljoen's burghers.
They wanted to shut down the Delagoa Bay railway line which was now crucial for British supplies.
While Milner worried, and Kitchener’s new scorched earth policy began to yield initial results particularly in the Eastern Transvaal, Deneys Reitz was dealing with a crazy horse as he and his brother continued on the campaign with General Beyers.
In December, he had been part of the Koos de La Rey attack on General Clements in the Magaliesberg at a place called Nooitgedacht. Remember how the mountain fight had led to the British withdrawing and the Boers seizing a great deal of material.
The first thing Reitz did was ditch his deadly Mauser in favour of the British Lee-Metford rifle. The Boers were running out of ammunition for the German weapons, and had seized tens of thousands of rounds from the British along with rifles, so naturally they kitted themselves out with the latest English equipment.
He gave his large English chargers away in order to reduce his stable, doing as most Boers did - riding with one or two spare horses. Deneys, however, retained what he believed was probably one of the strangest horses in the entire Boer army.
“My father had purchased him in the Lydenburg district from a homegoing burgher, who omitted to tell us that he was possessed of the devil…”
The horse, in a nutshell, was crazy.
