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Page 8
We left a happier Bethlehem at a rainy dawn the next day. Half way to
Reitz we outspanned in the rain. It rained all night. The following
morning came back to mind a talk an old soldier and I had once while
freezing one early morning awaiting the Channel boat at Greenock.
Alluding to cold and misery, he said: "You don't know what it is, my
son, till you've been held up for three nights by rain in war-time in
the South African veld, and spent the time standing in water. I did it
outside Mafeking." Well, I understand a little now.
The next day our scouts entered Reitz; the rebels had fled. For two
days we operated against them. A day later General Botha returned to
Reitz. Nothing was said at the time. The fact was that before we
entrained at Reitz, on the 7th of December, Wessel Wessels and
Serfontein were surrounded. A day later they surrendered: the Orange
Free State Rebellion, in all its futility, was over.
[Illustration: The last pursuit of Kemp. Flying column crossing the
Orange River after him]
[Illustration: Troops returning to Pretoria after Nooitgedacht.
December 16, 1914]
SECTION IV
FOURIE
Just before and during the Commander-in-Chief's long trek, other bodies
of loyalist troops had been engaging the rebels. The most notable of
these actions were against Muller at Bronkhorst Spruit (5th November,
1914; casualties, one killed and three wounded), and against Fourie at
Hamanskraal (22nd November, 1914; casualties, three killed and ten
wounded). Both these actions took place in the neighbourhood of
Pretoria. As a result of them and the death of Beyers in the Vaal
River, the Rebellion in the Transvaal was virtually smashed. There
remained only Fourie to be dealt with.
Fourie, late Major in the South African Defence Force, possibly the
most fanatical of all the rebels, appears to have been a man of
character and proved courage. Having got away at the action at
Hamanskraal, he and his younger brother were moving about in the veld
with ex-Major Pienaar and a moderate force. Their fantastic purpose was
said to be the taking of Pretoria itself on Dingaan's Day, the 16th of
December. As all the South African world knows, this date marks the
anniversary of the famous fight of the Voortrekkers at Blood River in
1838. The day before a force of South African Police, Defence Force,
and South African Mounted Riflemen left Pretoria, detrained at
Greyling's Post, on the Pietersburg Line, and started in pursuit of the
last big rebel commando at large. In this move we of the Bodyguard
found ourselves acting; General Botha, who had returned to Pretoria
after his severe field work, had gone to his farm for a few days' rest
before the South-West campaign.
[Illustration: Diagram of Nooitgedacht]
We trekked at dawn and during the whole of the following day, with one
rain-sodden halt, till four in the afternoon. The rebels had doubled in
their tracks after reaching a large dam at Blaaubank. Late in the
afternoon our scouts returned to the column and reported having located
the enemy three miles ahead, entrenched in a donga, or dried-up stony
river course, on the farm Nooitgedacht No. 4. We prepared for action,
and encountered the rebels in the next half hour. This, the first true
action I had been in, was an extremely dirty affair; a man who had gone
through some of the worst fights in the South African War afterwards
assured me it was the hottest corner he had ever been in. Bush-country
fighting is detestable chiefly because you cannot see your enemy until
you are on top of him. Our centre cantered in extended order up an
avenue flanked by dense bush. We were laughing and asking where the
deuce the rebels were, when a hail of rifle fire at short range greeted
us. Our fellows were out of their saddles in a second, and advanced to
the attack through the bush. Meantime, the South African Police extreme
left had swept round to the head of the spruit on both sides of which
the donga was formed, the South African Mounted Riflemen and more South
African Police closed in, the Defence Force unit getting in rear and in
flank of the rebels to cut them off. The attacking party had to work
their way through open veld before they could charge the enemy; they
made a mark as good as standing game. It was two and a half hours
before the "Cease-fire" whistle sounded.
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