Battle of Helvetia
| Battle of Helvetia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Boer War | |||||||
 A 4.7 inch naval gun similar to the Lady Roberts gun, captured at the Battle of Helvetia, South Africa, on 29 December 1900. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Transvaal Orange Free State |
 Britain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Ben Viljoen Chris Muller | Major Stapleton Lynch Cotton | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 3 fallen, 5 wounded | 11 fallen, 29 wounded, 235 captured[1] | ||||||
The Battle of Helvetia was an engagement in the Second Boer War fought by Boer and British troops on 29 December 1900 in Helvetia 10 km north of Machadodorp, eastern South African Republic.
Battle
[edit]Boer troops under Vechtgeneraal Chris Muller and overall command of General Ben Viljoen won a surprise victory over the British forces of Major Stapleton Lynch Cotton (1860-1928), attacking them from east and west at dark before daybreak. The Boers numbered about 580 men (or 350[2]), while the British forces were only about 350 men strong, however boasting a 120mm (4.7 inch) naval cannon.[3][4][5] Muller and his troops took 235 prisoners of war and the cannon. After burning British army stocks, Boer troops fled for oncoming British reinforcements.[2]
Aftermath
[edit]Muller later became particularly famous for the capture of this cannon, jokingly called the 'Lady Roberts'.[6] Major Cotton, 1st Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment, was convicted of quitting his post at Helvetia, but acquitted of neglect of good order and military discipline.[7]
Literature
[edit]
- Amery, Leo S. Chapter IV Nooitgedacht and the Transvaal Outbreak (Dec. 1900—Jan. 1901) in: The Times history of the war in South Africa 1899-1902. Retrieved 29 November 2023. At the website angloboerwar.com of David Biggins.
- Grobler, J.E.H.: The War Reporter. Jonathan Ball Publishers. 2004. ISBN 978-1-86842-186-2.
- Pakenham, Thomas (1979). The Boer War. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-42742-4 – via archive.org. Page 493.
- Viljoen, B. J. (1902). CHAPTER XXVIII. CAPTURE OF "LADY ROBERTS." from My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War. Project Gutenberg. p. 285. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
References
[edit]- ^ Pakenham 1979, p. 493.
- ^ a b Viljoen 1902.
- ^ Wessels, André (2011). The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902): White man's war, black man's war, traumatic war. Bloemfontein: Sun Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9781920382551.
- ^ Pakenham, Thomas (1997). The Boer War. London (UK): Abacus, Little Brown & Co. p. 493.
- ^ Grobler, J.E.H. (2004). The war reporter : the Anglo-Boer war through the eyes of the burghers. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.
- ^ The cannon's name referred to Nora Henrietta Bews, the spouse of the British Commander-in-Chief Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts.
- ^ Miller, Stephen M. (April 2010). "Duty or Crime? Defining Acceptable Behavior in the British Army in South Africa, 1899—1902". Journal of British Studies. 49 (2): 311–331. doi:10.1086/649766. JSTOR 23265204. S2CID 143145178. Page 330.
External links
[edit]- Bennett, Jenny (July 20, 2010). "The capture of the "Lady Roberts"". streamsandforests.wordpress.com. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- Joubert, Mariette (7 October 2019). "Slag van Helvetia op 29 Des 1900 tussen Machadodorp en Nelspruit Monumente, Gedenktekens en Interessanthede Suid-Afrika". facebook.com (in Afrikaans). Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- Penning, Louwrens (1903). "De Overrompeling van Helvetia.(28 December 1900.). In: De oorlog in Zuid-Afrika. De strijd tusschen Engeland en de verbonden Boeren-republieken Transvaal en Oranje-Vrijstaat in zijn verloop geschetst. Deel 3". dbnl.org (in Dutch). DBNL digitale bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- Pretorius, Fransjohan (29 December 2021). "Die aanval op Helvetia op 29 Desember 1900". netwerk24.com (in Afrikaans). Die Burger. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
See also
[edit]